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Ellina Mhlanga
Senior Sports Reporter
AFTER recording some encouraging performances during the 2024 season, the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe will wrap up its activities with an awards gala in November.
This year’s event is scheduled for November 16 at which NAAZ will seek to reward the stand-out performers for the year.
NAAZ president Tendayi Tagara said the nomination process is already underway.
“The nomination process has started and we have appointed different people to look after the nominations.
“There are some looking after the best athletes, there are people who are looking after the officials’ category, people are looking at the best provinces.
“So, there are quite several committees that have been set to look at the different categories.
“We have junior athletes, senior athletes, and youth athletes. We are also looking at the best province, best technical officials as well as our partners to be awarded such as sponsors,” Tagara said.
The NAAZ national awards returned early this year with the athletics mother body honouring athletes who excelled in 2023.
Before that, the awards had been shelved for more than 20 years.
Tagara said they are encouraged by the performances of the athletes, in particular the outcome at the Olympic Games where sprinters Tapiwanashe Makarawu and Makanakaishe Charamba reached the men’s 200m final.
Reigning NAAZ Athlete of the Year and marathon runner Isaac Mpofu made the top 20 when crossing the finish line 19th at the Paris Games.
Before his participation at the Olympics, Makarawu had won a silver medal at the Africa Senior Championships in Cameroon.
Triple jumper Chengetayi Mapaya also claimed a silver medal at the continental meet while Ashley Kamangirira reached the women’s 400m hurdles final.
Kamangirira and Mpofu also won bronze medals for Zimbabwe at the African Games in Accra, Ghana in March.
NAAZ, who look set to be spoilt for choice on the winners, also had several juniors qualifying for the World Athletics Under-20 Championships held last month in Lima, Peru although some did not attend the competition despite having made the cut.
David Nyamufarira, Panashe Nhenga, Brendon Muvimi, and Caledon Ruwende represented the country at the World Junior meet.
“We are calling upon our partners to honour our athletes, especially after an outstanding performance from the Olympics team.
“Our juniors again performed well where we had a record eight athletes qualifying for the World Junior Championships, which is a record since independence.
“The just-ended season was very encouraging because the performance of the team at the Olympics was outstanding.
“We had two athletes in the 200m event final. That is a great feat for us as an association. We are really proud of that performance,” said Tagara.
Tagara said although they had some corporate partners, they still needed more support to cater for all categories.
“Yes, there are sponsors coming on board for the awards. We are not yet sure how many . . . But the response has been very positive from quite a number of our partners, new and old partners.”
For the senior women, the likes of Vimbayi Maisvorewa and Kamangirira are some of the favourites expected to make the shortlist.
Online Reporter