Chronicle Editor
Ellina Mhlanga, Harare Bureau
LOCAL athletes will get down to business tomorrow when they compete in the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe’s season-opener track and field championships at the National Sports Stadium B Arena.
Participants will compete in 60m, 150m, 300m, 600m, long jump, shot-put and discus.
Harare Athletics Board secretary-general Sledge Chinyoka said entries are closing this evening.
“Mashonaland East, West and Central provinces have confirmed participation by sending their team lists. We are going to have pre-entries whereby teams send their athletes prior to competition.
“We have a few from Midlands but these are individuals. So far we have 300 athletes but registration is still on up to tomorrow (today) evening,” said Chinyoka.
The meet will provide athletes the opportunity to measure their state of preparedness for the season since it is the first competition of the year.
“We are not having the traditional events, for example instead of 100m we are going to have the 60m event. We want to have athletes being tested on the fundamentals of athletics that is strength and endurance. Since it’s a season opener they have to work on that since they have been off-season.
“As Harare province we are not fielding provincial teams but clubs, schools and individuals are going to participate. Some of the clubs that have confirmed include Amen as well as Prince Edward School.
“We basically expect coaches and athletes to be able to assess their state of preparedness,” Chinyoka said.
Mr Pace-Maxed Zimbabwe Athletic Club have indicated they will be fielding some junior and senior athletes for tomorrow’s competition.
Coach Collen Makaza said this is a chance to gauge progress made by their athletes ahead of major competitions.
“We just want to test our level of fitness from what we have been doing and also coming from off-season we need to assess our athletes. So this is only to see where we are before the major races in February and the juniors are preparing for NASH events,” said Makaza.
Some of the athletes from the club expected to take part tomorrow are Wayne Kabondo and Junior Mupandagwa.
Top local-based athletes such as Tatenda Tsumba, Ngoni Makusha, Itayi Vambe, Dickson Kamungeremu as well as the pair of Norman Mukwada and Dickson Kapandura, who have just graduated from the juniors will be missing from tomorrow’s action as they are in South Africa, focusing on preparations for the 2020 Olympic Games qualification events.
The month-long camp that got underway early last month is set to end next week before they shift focus to actual competition to try and qualify for the Games in Tokyo, Japan.
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