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Sports Reporter
UPCOMING athlete Gershom Sabri believes he has what it takes to become one of the few athletes from this country to compete in combined events in athletics.
Sabri hopes to follow in the footsteps of United States-based decathlete Keegan Cooke, who is the only Zimbabwean so far, competing at a higher level in that event and was at the African Games in Congo Brazzaville in September.
The 15-year-old has already begun his groundwork to fulfil his ambition and in August he competed in his first national event at the National Youth Games where he scooped a gold medal in octathlon, which is made up of eight events.
He is currently competing in the 100m, 110m hurdles, 400m, 1000m, javelin, discus, long jump and high jump and he is looking forward to adding two more events – pole vault and 1 500m to complete the 10 events for decathlon.
The event during the National Youth Games in Mutare attracted 17 athletes from across the country but only seven athletes were able to complete the race with Sabri emerging the winner.
Recently he competed in the Southern African Christian Schools Sports Association (SACSSA) Games in South Africa where he scooped six medals including two gold medals in various events. Sabri is, however, confident of taking the next step, which is to compete in decathlon with his target being the 2020 Olympic Games although the National Youth Games were his first national event.
“Previously I was focusing on school events and I had not reached the age-group to go for (regional and international) championships and other games out of the country.
“But I am now getting to that age of qualifying for those events and I will be going to most of those competitions.
“When I started athletics I was in Grade Six, I wasn’t really that good at the lower ages. I didn’t really think I could run but the moment I started running I came first. . .it was the first time I competed in an athletics competition.
“That’s when my coach told me that I should venture into athletics and I did pretty well since that time.
“I was focusing on 100m and 200m, long jump, high jump and I was a 400m runner. Those were the events I was taking part in and I was doing pretty well, I was like 12 years-old then.
“My plans for the future are to then become this athlete who can go to the Olympics and compete there. My coach said that we don’t have facilities for combined events in Zimbabwe, so I am planning to move to the United States to expose myself to some of the best facilities that they have,” said Sabri.
A Form Three student at Eaglesvale High School, Sabri said after realising his potential in athletics he is likely to drop other sport codes that he has been participating in to focus on athletics only.
This, he believes, will help him to achieve his goal of competing at the 2020 Olympics.
“I am very multi-talented, I do rugby, I played for the junior national team, I swam and I was pretty good in that, I played cricket and basketball.
“And as much as I love those sports they are pretty risk when you are doing athletics. So I might just stick to my athletics and focus on that and I will surely meet that target. In 2020 I will be competing with some of the elite athletes in athletics,” Sabri said.
Sabri, however, said the training environment would be better if there can be sponsors to assist the national association put in place facilities that can be easily accessed by athletes locally.
One of his coaches Silas Muringani said they are expecting the 15-year-old to compete in the World Youth Championships in 2017 and Junior World Championships the following year as well as the 2019 African Games with hopes that he qualifies for the 2020 Olympics.
“The road map would be that he needs to compete in the World Youth Championships in 2017, then the World Junior Championships 2018, the African Games 2019 and eventually we will see how he progresses and maybe he will be able to qualify for the 2020 Olympics,” said Muringani.
Online Reporter