Online Reporter
Ellina Mhlanga
Zimpapers Sports Hub
SEASONED athletics coach Partson Muderedzi has challenged local coaches to step forward and play a bigger part in developing talent if Zimbabwe is to keep pace on the world stage.
Speaking as Zimbabwe fielded eight athletes at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan, Muderedzi said the sport already has a strong base of trained coaches who now need to turn qualifications into action.
“I think if we want to see the way we are developing our officials in Zimbabwe, for example, here in Midlands alone we have got more than 80 teachers or coaches who went through the CECS course (World Athletics Coaches Education and Certification),” he said.
“So, let’s say each province has 40. Forty by 10 is 400 coaches with CECS, imagine all those certificates.
“You need to be saying, if only one of those coaches can identify one athlete and start working with that athlete, imagine, that’s 400 athletes. I foresee a bright future as a country, but we have to also work hard and we need proper planning.”
Zimbabwe’s team in Tokyo includes 200m sprinters Makanakaishe Charamba and Tapiwanashe Makarawu, triple jumper Chengetayi Mapaya, 400m sprinter Vimbayi Maisvorewa, hurdler Ashley Miller Kamangirira and marathon runners Isaac Mpofu, Tendai Zimuto and Fortunate Chidzivo. Five of them are based in the United States, highlighting how much local systems still rely on foreign training.
Muderedzi, a former national athlete who led a seven member team to the 1997 World Championships in Athens, believes more athletes can reach that level if grassroots talent identification is strengthened. He also wants to see more women making the cut.
He pointed to Kamangirira and Maisvorewa, both making their World Championships debuts, as signs of promise even though they exited in the heats.
“On Ashley and Maisvorewa, we are definitely looking at them. If we give them time, let’s say two, three years, I think they should be somewhere.
“Look at Ashley, she is actually climbing the ladder slowly. We had her last year in Cameroon . . . I think she is coming up.”
Kamangirira has already shown her pedigree, winning a bronze medal in the 100m hurdles at the African Games in Accra, Ghana, before switching to the 400m hurdles, where she placed fourth at the Africa Senior Championships in Douala, Cameroon.
Muderedzi also praised National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe president Tendayi Tagara for building a stronger technical base.
“I think he has done very well with his team.
“Looking at him from years back, I mean, we were coaches together . . . And I think he’s taken that advantage in his approach. Coaches like Ben Chauke, he is doing very well with the long distance runners. They need to be mentioned because they are doing quite a good job,” he said.
Chauke was in charge of Zimbabwe’s marathon runners in Tokyo. NAAZ has invested heavily in courses for coaches and technical officials in recent years, a push that was endorsed at the Confederation of African Athletics congress held in Nigeria in July.
Muderedzi believes the next step is simple: get every trained coach to identify and nurture at least one athlete and build a self sustaining production line for the future.
