Online Reporter
Ellina Mhlanga
Zimpapers Sports Hub
TO be a world-class athlete is no mean feat.
It’s not every day that African countries brag about having a world-class athlete, especially when it comes to sprinters.
That is why when a genuine world-class sprinter emerges in Africa, there is a lot of excitement around him.
Makanakaishe Charamba is transforming himself into one such sprinter.
He continues to prove he has what it takes to be in that class of the world’s best sprinters.
His recent third-place finish at the Wanda Diamond League final underlined his status as one of the top sprinters in the world today.
As he heads to Budapest, Hungary ,for the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship, Charamba will be hoping to maintain the momentum.
The Ultimate Championship, being staged for the first time, will see the best of the best converging in Budapest from Friday to Sunday.
The biennial event consists of 13 individual events each for men and women – eight track and five field events as well as two relays.
It brings together the world’s top-ranked athletes, including Olympic champions from 2024, last year’s world champions in Tokyo, and this year’s Diamond League winners – who earned automatic berths.
They are joined by those who have qualified via their world rankings and a small number of exceptional invitations.
Charamba earned his place through his world ranking.
He is currently ranked sixth.
The line-up includes Diamond League final winner Kenneth Bednarek and silver medallist Sinesipho Dambile as well as Letsile Tebogo, the Olympic champion, who finished fourth.
The 24-year-old Charamba will be hoping to build on the strong foundation he has already established, fresh from the Diamond League.
Charamba will be joined fellow Zimbabwean Ashley Miller, who qualified for the women’s 400m hurdles.
NAAZ director of coaching, talent identification and development Phakamile Lisimati said:
“We are wishing them the best and hoping that they will do their best and be counted among the world top athletes.”
The annual series saw athletes competing across 14 global meets that culminated into the two-day Final held last weekend in Brussels.
On his way to the final, Charamba competed in a number of the meetings, earning points that saw him qualifying for the final.
In his first meet on June 19 in Doha, he clocked a personal best of 19.88 seconds to finish second.
He followed up with a third-place finish in 20.11 seconds at the Hayward Field, Eugene, Oregon, United States on July 4.
Charamba went on to produce another top three finish when clocking 20.14 seconds at the Stade Olympique de la Pontaise in Lausanne, Switzerland on August 21.
On August 27, he finished fourth in Zurich with a time of 20.10 seconds, before heading to final held on September 4 and 5 in Brussels, Belgium.
He stepped up to run a brilliant 19.99 seconds in the final last weekend, wrapping up his Diamond League season with a bronze.
It was also a historic moment for Zimbabwe as Charamba became the first athlete to reach the final in the series that feature some of the world’s top athletes.
The performance also saw him qualifying for next year’s World Athletics Championships in China.
Charamba, with a personal best of 19.88 seconds, is Zimbabwe’s second 200m fastest sprinter behind national record holder Tapiwanashe Makarawu.
Makarawu holds the national record of 19.84 seconds.
The two sprinters have put Zimbabwe on the world map when it comes to athletics, sprints in particular, over the recent past years.
Their major breakthrough and highlight were at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games when they stormed into the men’s 200m final.
