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Ellina Mhlanga–Senior Sports Reporter
IT’S a decade now since Cuthbert Nyasango’s incredible performance at the London 2012 Olympic Games that saw him underlining his status as one of the best long-distance runners to have emerged from Zimbabwe.
The long-distance runner wrote his own piece of history at the 2012 Games when finishing on position seven in the men’s marathon in 2 hours 12 minutes 8 seconds.
He surpassed Tendai Chimusasa’s outstanding performance at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, where he finished ninth in the men’s marathon.
It remains the best ever finish by a Zimbabwean marathon runner at the Olympic Games.
The Nyanga-born athlete, who spent the better part of his childhood in Chirarwe Village, still remembers how emotional he was after the race.
“I was emotional after the race because after all the sacrifices, a boy from Chirarwe go out there, compete at a stage like that and comes seventh, that’s four places from a medal. So I was very emotional because I had gotten the results we were looking for.
“Two, the sacrifice made, as a professional athlete you don’t have much time with your family because you have a strict training regime. So you see that the sacrifice was worth it.
“You don’t get money from Olympics but just knowing that in history your name will be mentioned among people who went to the Olympics in 2012 and finishing in the top 10 gives you that emotion to cry, to say I have been working and this is what I have achieved.”
Nyasango says he knew if he pushed himself he could make the top 10 at a global stage.
“One thing I always say about 2012 is, it’s not three months that bring such results. It’s the process for so many years that contributes to such results. The process was that vigorous.
“And then I always told myself that I am not that athlete who would set a world record but I knew if I put enough energy and concentration top 10 is doable. That was our goal because top 10 has rewards.
“So we prepared well. There were no injuries, I was on the Olympic Scholarship, so we had the resources,” said Nyasango.
After the 2012 Olympics Nyasango, together with his Spanish manager Julia Garcia Fernandez and coach Benson Chauke, they went back to the drawing board to plan for the future.
However, injuries had an effect on their plans.
“I had a challenge of injuries. I think that’s what also limited my achievements because there was no consistence. I would train, get to a certain level and get injured, four, five weeks I am down,” said Nyasango.
In 2015, he went to the World Championships in Beijing, China, and finished 15th. He then went to the Rio 2016 Olympics but this time around things didn’t work out as planned. He finished on position 58.
“I was disappointed. It’s one of the races that even if I am asked what happened, I don’t even know because we did everything according to the book… It rained, and I don’t know, after 22km my body just couldn’t respond. That was my worst race, finishing 58th.”
He then went for the 2017 World Championships and picked up another injury and doctors recommended surgery but he opted not to go under the knife.
“I am a believer and one thing I believe is God has a plan for me and everything has a season, so if certain things in my life are not going according to plan, I always believe God wants to move me into another season,” said Nyasango.
Nyasango is currently employed as an athletics coach at Bindura University of Science Education under the National Sports Academy.
Although he is entertaining the idea of returning to competition, for now his focus is coaching and this year he attended the World Athletics Level Two coaching course to improve his qualifications.
His achievements reflect a successful career that he himself admits, transformed his life and that of his siblings and dependants. But it was not all rosy at the beginning.
“My father passed away when I was in Grade Five, so we grew up in a very difficult situation. I can’t say in a poor family because my father had a house in Harare, so it helped here and there.
“When I started training I would train in my school uniform… Tendai Chimusasa then came, he was motivating us, helping with tactics, tips and he gave me two new pairs of shoes – one spike and one training shoe. It really helped me.
“After that Tendai Chinhano, former athlete from Kuwadzana High, also gave me one pair of racing shoes. The three pairs I still have them as part of the memory of my journey.”
Nyasango was identified by Chauke at Kuwadzana High School when he was in Form Three and says he was reluctant at first.
But because it was mandatory to attend sporting activities at the school, he had to and with Chauke having seen the potential insisted Nyasango attends training.
With time he got used to the idea and represented the school at different competitions, including the Dairibord Cross Country Championships.
The monetary prizes meant Nyasango, born in a family of six, could assist his mother and siblings.
The turning point, though, was when he qualified for the World Junior Championships and went on to represent the country in Chile.
The championships clashed with his Ordinary Level exams and he opted to go for the race, a decision he doesn’t regret though he had to retake his Ordinary Level the following year.
Even his brother Henry understood the decision.
“By then we had a better understanding of sport and what he was doing. We had noticed that there was something positive from it.
“Our mother was in the village and we were like the head of the family, so it helped us a lot as a family and just uplifting the family name,” said Henry.
He went on to represent the country at the World Cross Country Championships several times, World Championships and the Olympics.
Nyasango used to spend most of his time in Europe, competing in different races and pacing in some of the top races, including the London Marathon. He was working with Julia Garcia Fernandez as his manager after he was linked by Abel Chimukoko.
Chimukoko was based in Spain by then and already working with Fernandez as his manager. He was charmed by Nyasango’s talent.
“I remember in 1999 we ran the Trojan half-marathon and I beat him towards the end of the race, I think it was only about 500m from the finish line. He was still young.
“I realised he was talented, so I talked to him by then I was based in Madrid, Spain, and from what he was saying he made a lot of sense and was aiming higher,” said Chimukoko.
Nyasango is married to Faith, also an athlete, and she says it has been an interesting experience.
“We have been married for 14 years now. It has been an interesting experience really because there are so many challenges you face together like disappointment after you train hard and you go to competitions and fail to produce good results.
“But we have been so supportive to one another,” said Faith.
Online Reporter