NAAZ Championships on today

Lawson Madzivanyika

NATIONAL Athletics Association of Zimbabwe president Tendai Tagara has urged local athletes to use today’s National Track and Field Championship to improve on their endurance levels and finishing times.

This comes on the backdrop of next month’s regional and international meets, which will be used as qualifiers for the Summer Olympics to be held in Brazil later this year. Hundreds of athletes are expected to converge at the National Sports Stadium for the National Track and Field Championships.

“Athletes will have to use this event for building up their endurance levels for major championships like regional championships and Olympic qualifiers,” said Tagara

He said male and female athletes competing in the 10 000 meters’ race should aim to run within the stipulated Olympic qualification time in the run up to next month’s Olympic qualifiers.

“Qualification times for men and women have been set at 28 minutes and 32,5 minutes for the 10 000 meters race respectively.

“There are athletes who are running 29 minutes for the 10 000m race so they will be aiming to improve their times,” Tagara said.

“There will be high competition at junior levels too, as schools are preparing for their National Championships,” he said. Tagara added that Naaz is expecting more than 200 athletes to converge at the                                                          event.

“We are expecting more than 200 athletes and hope they will make full use the automated timing machine.

“These times will help them with their preparations for next month’s meets,” said Tagara.