Chronicle Editor
Ellina Mhlanga, Senior Sports Reporter
NATIONAL Sports Academy athlete David Nyamufarira has become the first junior athlete to qualify for the World Athletics Under-20 Championships after making the cut in 100m.
The championships are running from August 27 to 31 in Lima, Peru.
Nyamufarira earned his place at the forthcoming championships when running 10.53 seconds at the AGN Track and Field League Three in Pretoria, South Africa over the weekend.
The qualifying standard is 10.55 seconds for the men’s 100m.
Besides qualifying, the 18-year-old won the race and is delighted to have secured a spot at the forthcoming global event.
“l am so happy about my performance because l have qualified for 100m in position one with the time of 10.53 seconds for the World Junior Championships.
“l was telling myself that I am going to win and l was not going to allow anyone to go in front of me,” said Nyamufarira.
He also came first in 200m in 21.44 seconds missing the qualifying time, which is 21.35 seconds.
With an encouraging performance in the 100m, Nyamufarira is positive of running the qualifying time for the 200m event.
The qualification period runs until three weeks before the competition.
“For 200m l was position one with the time of 21.44 of which the qualifying standard for 200m is 21.35 and l am very close to qualifying for the 200m. So l have to put more work.”
National Sports Academy coach Cuthbert Nyasango said they have been working on qualifying for the junior championships for some time and is happy they have managed to do just that.
The academy is based at Bindura University of Science Education.
“We are happy as National Sports Academy that the investment that we are putting out to these athletes, we are getting results and results are coming. And also an appreciation to some of the stakeholders that assist us out there.
“But we are happy because that means that we are able to achieve some of the objectives and goals that we have as National Sports Academy.
“So this is something that we have been planning for a long time. But we are happy we did achieve this through the long-term athlete development plan that we use at National Sports Academy.”
Nyasango, a former athlete himself said they are not looking at just participating at the World Under-20 Championships but would want Nyamufarira to be more competitive.
“Now we need maybe to start to have a double peak for him. So we are going to make sure that we work with him, plan our races accordingly from now until July so that he will be at the peak again during the World Junior Championships.
“Now that he is focusing also on 200m, he is very close…I think a difference of 10 milliseconds. So we are very close to the 200m mark.
“But what we want when he goes out there, we don’t want him to just go and participate. We want him to be a competitor. We want him to be up there.
“So we hope if everything goes well, we will work tirelessly to make sure that he is in top shape during the World Junior Championships,” said Nyasango.
Nyasango said they are targeting races in South Africa and Botswana for qualification.
Nyamufarira was part of the team that represented the country at the Confederation of African Athletics Under-20 Championships last year.
Online Reporter