adminEllina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
THE National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe will this weekend hold their first Super Eight competition at the National Sports Stadium as part of their preparations for the various upcoming regional and international events.
The event is set for Sunday with senior and junior athletes from the country’s 10 provinces expected to compete in all track and field events.
The Super Eight will see the top eight athletes in each event, according to the national association’s rankings, competing on their own while the rest of the participants will also have their competition.
NAAZ president Tendai Tagara said they will be using the meet to rank the athletes and select teams to compete in the Southern Region seniors and juniors competitions in May and June.
“We are going to have the Super Eight on Sunday. We have invited all athletes from police, prisons, universities and Nash.
“Why we are calling it Super Eight is because we will have the top eight athletes in each event running their own event.
“For example, in the 100m we will have three or four heats and the top eight will have their own heat. Besides the Top Eight, the other athletes will have their own heats. We are ranging our athletes.
“It’s an open event and it’s part of our preparations to select the team to the Southern region seniors championships in May and the Southern region juniors championships in June. We are also looking at the Youth Olympic Games,” said Tagara.
Tagara said they were expecting a high turnout since it is an open event for both seniors and juniors.
“We are looking at almost 300 to 400 athletes because we have invited athletes from all the 10 provinces that were at Nust (for the track and field competition).
“The athletes will be classified according to their times and we want to take almost 15 athletes for the Southern region championships.
“This is the first chapter of the Super Eight, we will have the second chapter in Bulawayo in April until we pick the final team and we will be ranking them.
“We are expecting our athletes to run good times especially in the 800m and sprint events where the juniors will be challenging the seniors.
“University of Zimbabwe, the police and army have good athletes so we are expecting a high turnout and good competition,” Tagara said.
Online Reporter