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Ellina Mhlanga
Zimpapers Sports Hub
NATIONAL Athletics Association of Zimbabwe director of coaching for talent identification and development Lisimati Phakamile has urged coaches and athletes to step up their preparations for 2025.
The national association is hoping to build on some positives recorded this year, going into the 2025 season.
Most athletes and coaches are already working towards getting ready for next year and Phakamile said starting early will be key considering they have a busy year ahead.
“We have a lot of events coming up next year big, important, and major championships that we are preparing to send teams and athletes from different age groups to the senior category to participate and represent the country in those events.
“We are quite an energetic lot after the just-ended Olympics, excitement is high, and motivation is high amongst all the athletes and coaches,” said Phakamile.
NAAZ witnessed an improvement in terms of athletes qualifying for the Africa Senior Championships, the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, and the World Athletics Under-20 Championships this year.
For next year they are looking at the World Relays, World Championships, African Under-18/Under-20 Championships, African Union Sports Council Region 5 Youth Games, and Regional events among other competitions.
There is an increased number of local competitions going into 2025 — road races as well as track and field events.
“As an association, we have already set our sights on some major competitions that we wish to participate in and attend, which include the World Relays, we also have the World Championships again in Tokyo.
“We also have the AUSC Region 5 Games coming in Windhoek, Namibia. So, we have a very big line-up of major events indicating that this is going to be a very busy season that we are getting into.
“So, we want to also take this opportunity to encourage our athletes to start early their preparations so that they don’t stay behind or lag in performance.
“We also want to challenge our coaches and everyone involved in the sport to start early so that they do not fail to start.”
The national association has lined up coaching and technical officials’ courses between this month and December in preparation for the 2025 season. The courses include a Level One coaching course for sprints and a Level Two course.
“So, we want to encourage all our coaches to start early, refresh their minds, refresh their work, prepare their programmes on time, and drill the athletes accordingly, to the expected performances that we want to achieve.
“We want to challenge the coaches to take note of the qualifying standards and entry standards of all these events and make sure that they meet the deadlines. And also, prepare the athletes for the expected fitness levels.
“As the coaching department of the association we are quite excited that this is another round, this is another term for us to again demonstrate our quality performances, quality coaching, and development of athletes and also manpower to represent the country,” said Phakamile.
Harare Athletic Board recently held a pre-season track and field event at the University of Zimbabwe and there was a huge turnout with athletes from other provinces also attending.
Online Reporter