adminEllina Mhlanga
Senior Sports Reporter
PROMISING sprinter Panashe Nhenga says the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe’s Junior Championships that were held over the weekend at the National Sports Stadium presented him with a platform to step up his build-up for upcoming international competitions.
The meet, titled “NAAZ Gift Chigwere Junior Track and Field Championships”, attracted over 300 athletes from different provinces.
Nhenga dominated the sprints, coming first in 100m in 10.20 seconds. He went on to win the 200m event in 21.10 seconds.
The 17-year-old has already qualified for the World Athletics Under-20 Championships. He qualified for the 100m event when he competed in Zambia in March.
And yesterday’s meet was part of his preparations for the World Championships scheduled for August in Colombia.
“I think at this moment all I need is to compete a lot because it’s all about competition, week after week, so that I really get ready for Colombia and give it a good shot.
“I am hoping to qualify for the finals in Colombia. It’s something that I have to work on.
“I am so elated to have qualified for the World Championships at the age of 17, so it’s an achievement,” said Nhenga.
Denzel Siyamulela also had a good day on the track when coming second in 100m and 200m events.
He posted a time of 10.40 seconds in 100m and 21.40 seconds in 200m.
In the girls section, Samkeliso Ndebele claimed the top spot in 100m in 11.90 seconds. She was followed by Lynette Zembe in 12.20 seconds.
On third place was Ruvarashe Nyamupinga in 12.40 seconds.
Ndebele, who represented the country at the postponed World Junior Championships last year, is also hoping to make the grade for this year’s edition.
“The competition was tough. I am still recovering from a hamstring injury so I wasn’t expecting to finish on position one. So I am proud of myself,” said Ndebele.
The national event was part of the selection process for the Youth Games to be held in Egypt and the African Union Sports Council Region Five Youth Games scheduled for December in Malawi.
National coach for junior and youth teams, Briad Nhubu, said they still need to improve in some areas when hosting such competitions.
“It was really a very good competition for our juniors and youth.
“We are also happy that it has helped us to fine tune these athletes that have qualified for the World Junior Championships, that is Panashe and Theophilus Mudzengerere.
“So in terms of preparation, this one again was another platform for athletes to see where they are and the level of competition helped us to assess where we have shortfalls.
“Definitely there are areas we need to improve in terms of probably things like time. We didn’t have the electronic time as to our expectation because of challenges beyond the organisers’ capacity.
“I think next time for it to augur well for us we need to come up with a juniors only championship, youth championship and also for cadets because if we combine them all, because of numbers it will not be possible to finish events in time,” said Nhubu.
Some of the juniors chasing qualification to the World Under-20 Championships are now expected to compete in Botswana on May 14 and 15 where they have chance to run the qualifying times.
Online Reporter