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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
UNAVAILABILITY of a World Athletics (WA) recommended instructor has forced National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (Naaz) to cancel the International Level Two Middle Distance coaching course to next year. The course was initially suppose to end today.
Naaz has been embarking on a series of capacity development programmes, inviting WA experts to come and share their knowledge with local coaches as part of their efforts to equip trainers so that athletes acquire right techniques.
The International Level Two Middle Distance coaching course had been scheduled to run from November 9 to 17.
Tendai Tagara, Naaz president said efforts to have the course moved to next month were fruitless.
“The international lecturer is committed the whole of November and December. We had requested to change the dates to end of December because most of our coaches who are teachers will be too busy to be released because of shortened school calendar, but the lecturer could not accommodate us this side of the year as he is fully booked. The course will now be held in January,” said Tagara.
Meanwhile, Naaz has sought Government clearance to hold interprovincial championships at the end of this month.
The event which was initially set for September 26 at White City Stadium was cancelled after Naaz failed to get clearance.
Despite government lifting the inter-city travel ban which was largely threatening the event at that time, the association considered that athletes needed time to train before they could get back to the track leading to the deferral of the event.
Tagara is confident that their application for interprovincial championships will sail through.
“We have applied to the Government through the Sport and Recreation Commission (SRC) to have our interprovincial championships on November 29 at White City Stadium. We’ve sent through supporting documents and we should be making follow ups to check on the progress,” said Tagara.
The national association have indicated they would want to at least hold two competitions before the end of the year. The interprovincial championships will be the first Naaz sanctioned competition since the return of sport from Covid-19.
-@ZililoR
Online Reporter