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Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
THE National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (Naaz) has flown in Belgian engineer Eddie Vanyutven Gerbern to repair the malfunctioning electronic timing system at White City Stadium.
The Belgian supplied the electronic system in 2014 when Bulawayo hosted the African Union Sports Council Region 5 Under-20 Youth Games.
In addition to the electronic timing device, a tartan track and giant monitor were also installed at the stadium.
The electronic system was used for the regional games in 2014 and a few Naaz meets before the machine malfunctioned. The giant monitor is not working and the starting blocks are no longer in sync with the system.
“It will cost us more than US$8 000 to bring him in. There are a number of gadgets that need repairing at White City and that’s why we have decided to bring in an expert to attend to that,” said Naaz president Tendai Tagara
“He will also run a course on electronic timing so that we have more personnel able to use the system.
We hope each province will be represented at the course. We want to ensure that by the time Nash and Naph have their national championships, the system will be working.”
Naaz wants athletes going to the World Junior Championships in Kenya to start training using the electronic timing system so that they know their actual times compared to current distorted ones.
The system will also help schools and tertiary institution athletes looking for scholarships abroad, as they will be able to submit electronically printed times required at that level.
Contractors failed to meet the deadline for completion of the athletics track at White City, leaving only a 100m stretch meeting international standards.
The remaining 300m was meant to be removed and properly re-laid after the 2014 games, but unavailability of funds stalled the project to date.
In September 2018, a fire at White City Stadium’s B-Arena destroyed some of the unlaid track left over from the shoddy work of 2014. – @innocentskizoe
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