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Ellina Mhlanga Senior Sports Reporter
THE National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe are looking at sending some of the long distance runners, who recently competed at the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon, for a camp in South Africa.
They are pursuing qualification for the 2022 World Athletics Championships.
Several local athletes took part in the race and some were chasing the qualifying time to the World Championships, in the United States, in July, 2022.
Among the leading athletes were Isaac Mpofu, who had the best result from the race, posting a time of 2 hours 11 minutes 41 seconds.
The qualifying time for men is 2 hours 11 minutes 30 seconds and 2 hours 29 minutes 30 seconds for women.
His training counterpart, Ngonidzashe Ncube, clocked 2 hours 12 minutes 49 seconds.
NAAZ president, Tendai Tagara, commended Mpofu and Ncube for their efforts.
“The performance of our marathon runners at the Cape Town Marathon was outstanding but disappointing at the same time,’’ he said.
“I was expecting Mpofu and Ncube to qualify at the race.
“But, it happens in any race.
“However, I am happy that they were able to finish in good positions, in the top 10.
“In terms of qualifying, you could see Mpofu missed by 11 seconds, these boys are strong. I am hoping that they will make it for World Championships.
“Our plan is that they go for camp in December. We want to assist them to go to camp in South Africa where they will be working under a South African coach.
“We want them to work with other people who have seen it and who can help them to make it to qualification.
“We also want to make sure that they get races in Europe, and that’s what we are working on. We are trying to look for agencies who can take them to Europe to run qualifying time.
“They are very close and I am very confident that we will get a full marathon team for 2022 Oregon World Championships.”
Tagara said they were also looking at athletes being considered for the Olympic Scholarships.
“The resources are limited but we want to help our athletes to make sure that they qualify, with the little that we have, we want to share with our athletes, that’s our philosophy for 2022, and beyond.
“Again, we are still pursuing to ensure some of them get direct individual sponsors for their races.
“We are also working on making sure some of them get Olympic Solidarity Scholarships.’’
Coach Collen Makaza, who travelled with some of the athletes from his Mr Pace Club for the marathon, underscored the need to assist the athletes with camps, after the race.
Online Reporter