admin
Ellina Mhlanga–Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE’S long-distance runner Ngonidzashe Ncube will be hoping for better fortunes this weekend when he takes part in the Enschede Marathon in the Netherlands. Ncube is chasing the marathon qualifying time for the World Athletics Championships due to take place from July 15 to 24 in Oregon, United States.
Ncube is this Sunday hoping to try and qualify for the championships when he takes part in the Enschede Marathon.
The qualifying time for men for the World Championships is 2 hours 11 minutes 30 seconds and for women its 2 hours 29 minutes 30 seconds.
Ncube has been in camp in Harare with the other long-distance runners that are seeking qualification to the World Athletics. He was expected to leave for the Netherlands late yesterday.
Coach Benson Chauke, who is leading the training camps for the local long-distance runners, said they had done all they could in preparation for Sunday’s marathon.
“We have done our bit under the circumstances. It has been a long road for Ngoni. We have done what we as coaches needed to do though we could have done better with more resources and the like.
“He hasn’t done much of running which has been on the public domain for this whole preparation period, he has been focusing specifically on his training.
“We have looked at most of his previous races, we have looked at his splits where he probably dropped some valuable time. We have discussed about that. So we are hoping and praying that as he goes for this one everything will just work together for him.
“All I can say is morale is high. He looks forward to it and we are happy with what we have done together with him and what has done even prior to us getting in contact with him.
“And if what we have been doing can be assessed by the results of his other camp mates if anything is to be judged by that then I think we are on the right track,” said Chauke.
Other athletes that have been in camp and are Zimbabwe’s hopefuls for qualification are Munyaradzi Jari and Isaac Mpofu. They are expected to compete in South Africa on May 8.
They were also at the Two Oceans Marathon recently where they competed in the half-marathon as part of their build-up to their race next month.
Mpofu posted a time of 1 hour 4 minutes 1 second and Jari clocked 1 hour 5 minutes 21 seconds.
Chauke said the times posted by the athletes were encouraging and an indication that they were on the right track with their preparations.
“Our aim was on time. We were not focusing on positions so we were looking at times to say what time will our athletes get, are we getting the times we want?
“So we achieved that and we are happy with their times, all of them and the splits they did for that Two Oceans.
“For us that was the biggest test we wanted to say we have done this with these guys can they go into this particular competition and see what times they can get considering the difficult nature of that particular route for Two Oceans and the times they posted, we are seeing that we are on the right track.
“So what’s left is just to polish up and hopefully pray that when whey they run in Durban, the course might be friendlier and we get better results,” said Chauke.
The national association is also hoping to have athletes qualifying for track and field events.
Online Reporter