Racing against the clock

Tinashe Kusema

THE Zimbabwe 4 x 100 meters relay team of Ngoni Makusha, Dickson Kamungeremu, Itayi Vambe and Tatenda Tsumba raced against their opponents as well as the clock at the Lefika Athletics Championships in Gaborone, Botswana last weekend.

“Breaking the record was always the plan,” revealed Vambe.

“We knew that breaking the record would land us a spot at the World Relays and had been training for it.”

By stopping the clock at 38.95 seconds race, the awesome four not only won the race and booked a ticket to next month’s IAAF World Relays in Yokohama, Japan but they also saw broke a 12–year old national record of 39.16 seconds set by a team of Ngoni Makusha (senior), Gabriel Mvumvure, Brian Dzingai and Lewis Banda at the 2007 All Africa Games in Tunisia.

“I still battle to find the words to describe the feeling,” said Kamungeremu of their record breaking feat.

“All I remember is running towards Ngoni (Makusha), who was anchoring our team, with the intention of lifting him up.

“Unfortunately, he grabbed me first and I just found myself in the air.

“We had just won the biggest race of our respective careers, and all the training and hard work had finally paid off.”

The Zimbabwean team’s time is presently the second fastest recorded in the world this year.

And while they might lack the natural talent of their predecessors- believed to be the golden generation of Zimbabwean athletics- this team of upstarts reckons they have the two key ingredients to surpass their idols- hard work and team chemistry.

“I met Itai (Vambe) back in 2015, as we both belonged to the same club and started training together from day one,” said Makusha.

“We met Dickson some two years ago and bonded with him almost immediately. Tatenda completes the crew and joined us six months ago,” he said.

What about life off the track?

“Tsumba is our captain and leader, we call him Magate,” chimed in Kamungeremu.

“I am the joker of the team, while Itai, and to some extent Ngoni, brings in the fitness and work ethic. We train five days a week together and often hang out together too.”