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Ellina Mhlanga Senior Sports Reporter
AFTER more than one-and-half-years on the sidelines, female long-distance runner Rutendo Nyahora had a positive return to competition when she came second in the Solomon Mahlangu 10km race in Mpumalanga, South Africa, over the weekend.
Nyahora remain one of the leading local female long-distance runners despite suffering a harmstring injury that led to her withdrawing from the qualification race for the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Posting on her Facebook page, Nyahora announced her return yesterday and is excited to be back.
“First 10km race after one year seven months, second position. I didn’t gain all my weight in one day, I won’t lose it in one day. I am patient with myself.”
The race was held on Saturday and the Zimbabwean runner finished second in 41minutes.
Nyahora said the race was a platform to assess her fitness and for this year, her focus is going to be on training since she is targeting qualification to next year’s World Athletics Championships.
“The race was okay.
“I was testing my fitness. Everything was okay, only that I need to focus more on training than racing this year.
“My main race will be around March or April. I want to run a marathon to qualify for the World Championships which will be held in Oregon next year,” Nyahora said.
The qualifying time for women’s marathon is 2 hours 29 minutes 30 seconds and for men its 2 hours 11 minutes 30 seconds.
These are the same qualifying standards that were used for the Olympics and no local athlete managed to meet the times.
However, the South Africa-based runner, said she is up for the task and investing more of her time in training than competing will go a long way in achieving her goal.
“Yes, it is the same time but I believe I will make it and qualify for the World Championships as long as I am injury-free nothing will stop me.
“Nothing much I will do different in terms of preparation. I have to keep on following my programme. My aim is to run marathon under 2 hours 29 minutes,” said Nyahora.
The World Championships are scheduled for July next year in Oregon, United States.
Nyahora has been to the global event before and was part of Team Zimbabwe at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Most of the local long-distance runners have just returned to competition and among the earmarked athletes for the World Championships are Ngonidzashe Ncube and Isaac Mpofu.
Mpofu missed qualification by 11 seconds when he took part in the Cape Town Marathon two weeks ago.
The National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe have indicated that they are working on assisting the athletes with a camp in South Africa as part of their preparations for next year.
They are looking at engaging a South African coach to help the athletes they believe have the potential to reach the qualifying mark.
Online Reporter