Naaz looks to the future

Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
FOLLOWING a disappointing performance by Zimbabwe’s two athletes in the World Athletics Under-20 Championships which ended on Sunday in Nairobi, Kenya, the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (Naaz) is now focusing on the season ahead.

Clinton Muunga and Samukeliso Ndebele represented the country in the 100m and 200m events in the championships, but they both failed to go beyond their heats.

Having gone to Nairobi without any preparatory races due to suspension of sports in the country, both sprinters flopped.

Muunga, who had qualified for both the men’s 100m and 200m events, had a rude awakening in the championships, finishing a disappointing seventh in his 100m heat in a time of 10,79 seconds. He then failed to finish the 200m heat race.

Ndebele was disqualified in her 200m heat.

Lisimathi Phakamile, Naaz national director of coaching and talent identification development, said the under-performance of Zimbabwean athletes shocked them.

“I want to appreciate the effort by Naaz to give our athletes an opportunity to be in Kenya. We all know that the past year has been a difficult year for all Zimbabwean sports due to the Covid-19 pandemic and safety measures taken by our Government on sports participation.

“We’re not impressed by the performance of our athletes, but we’re not blaming them. We know we could have done better by sending a bigger team. Unfortunately, we didn’t get all that and the performance wasn’t up to our expectations. It’s not a pleasing performance from our athletes,” Phakamile said.

He said there is a need to look to the future and try to get more athletes qualifying for next year’s major races.

“We’re saying let’s move on, we’ve closed this chapter, we’ve lost two generations of athletes that could represent us in the near future. We’re going back to the drawing board. If the authorities lift the sports ban, we will resume a new season, with the hope that it will be active and flawless. We need to forget the lost generations because of Covid-19 and start afresh.

“There are major competitions, the World Championships and the Senior African Championships coming next year.

We need to get more athletes qualifying for these major events. We need to have more events so that athletes get adequate preparations,” said Phakamile. – @ZililoR