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Ellina Mhlanga, Zimpapers Sports Hub
NATIONAL Athletics Association of Zimbabwe president Tendayi Tagara is hopeful of a fruitful season after releasing their calendar for 2025 packed with a series of major events.
Among the highlights for the year, the association is looking at qualifying athletes for the World Relays due to take place in May and the World Championships in September.
They have joined hands with Botswana, Namibia and Zambia to hold competitions in the respective countries as part of efforts to push their athletes towards attaining entry standards.
“We are hoping to have a fruitful 2025, where we are expecting to have the athletes participate at the Africa Junior Championships.
“We are pushing for the 4x100m, and 4x400m relays to qualify for the World Relays.”
However, he noted it will not be easy as some of the athletes based in the United States also have commitments with their universities.
“Our challenge is the commitment from most of our athletes in USA. However, we are pushing two approaches whereby we use the local talent to run competition in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and Namibia.
“We are also pushing, the US (athletes), to see if we can manage to have five or six of those athletes to participate in one relay. Unfortunately, the time of the competition is coming during their season in US . . . It’s going to be a challenge for athletes, but we are still pursuing on those relays.
“We are hoping some of our athletes will qualify for the World Championships in Japan,” said Tagara.
Qualification for the World Championships is already open and so far, United States-based sprinter Tapiwanashe Makarawu has secured his ticket in 200m.
They also have to assemble a team for the African Union Sports Council Region 5 Youth Games set for Namibia and CAA Under-18/Under-20 African Championships expected to take place in June.
“We have Africa Junior Championships in Madagascar. The dates have not yet been finalised and confirmed but the tentative dates are in June.”
Apart from the regional, continental and world events, NAAZ have a packed programme on the local scene with an increased number of local competitions.
“We are also hoping that most of our local competition will be executed in time. We have more road races for 2025, even the track and field again, there is a lot of competition for the track and field.
“We are hoping to have a better organised 2025 season. We are happy with former athletes who are coming on board to sponsor competitions for the season, which is a positive thing.
“Our partners are on board with us in terms of that again,” Tagara said.
The local season takes off in January with a number of competitions in the provinces and the national association will be hoping to use the events to prepare their athletes for the various senior and junior competitions.
Online Reporter