Online Reporter
Ellina Mhlanga in ABEOKUTA, Nigeria
PROMISING triple jumper Takunda Mutizwa says he is aiming higher after bagging gold medal at the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) Under-18/Under-20 Championships in Abeokuta, Nigeria. Mutizwa, competing in the Under-18 men, made an impressive show with a 14.96m leap to clinch a gold medal and in the process set a new personal best at the MKO Abiola Sports Arena.
He surpassed his previous PB of 14.27m.
“Of course, when I was seeing the other jumps because I was jumping at the ninth position, so the others were jumping 14.5, 14.6, and with my personal best on 14.27 I was feeling really insecure, really nervous.
“But I just trusted myself and then I got a huge jump.” Mutizwa won a silver medal in the same event at the African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 Youth Games in Namibia, and he proved his performance was no fluke, going for gold at the youth/junior championships.
“I am not a person who takes defeat that easily, but I also made sure I analysed what went wrong and I realised that the runway in Namibia was shot.
“But here it was longer, so I could utilise more speed and get the best out of my jumps,” Mutizwa said. The 17-year-old was competing at the CAA championships for the first time and his goal is to make next year’s World Athletics Under-20 Championships.
“I am pretty proud of myself because I broke my personal best from before, so it’s really something for me, it shows that I am improving.
“I am getting better and surely, I am aiming even higher for next year. I want to qualify for the World Championships Under-20, that’s my main goal.
“So here it’s a starting point . . . It’s just amazing,” said Mutizwa.
The gold medal was followed by a silver medal from the Under-20 men 4x100m relay team comprising Trevor Tauyah, Trey Chimunya, Takomborerwa Muza and Methembe Tshuma. The team went all out against hosts Nigeria, who dominated a number of events during the meet including on the track, neighbours Botswana and South Africa.
Muza said it has not been an easy outing for the team with most athletes struggling in the individual events.
“I am very proud. We did our very best as a country.
“The competition was not so easy, but we did our very best and I am very proud of that.
“The boys were panicking but we told each other, Let’s pray, we will do this, this is ours and then we did it.
“For the past few days, it’s not been really good because individuals were not doing so well.
“We had to make our coaches proud, and we did it for the country,” Muza said.
Zimbabwe had four medals going into the last day of the championships and were set to field the 4x400m relay teams to wrap up their participation. The other two medals — silver and bronze, came from Tatenda Chindowa in high jump Under-18 men and the 4x400m mixed relay team. The team was made up of Derick Matutu, Nataly Shoko, Nenyasha Chihora and Anesu Nyahuma.
The 4x400m mixed relay team initially finished fourth behind Nigeria, South Africa and Botswana. But moved up to third place following the disqualification of South Africa.
Zimbabwe posted a time of 3 minutes 32.01 seconds. Nigeria won the race in 3 minutes 22.07 seconds, and Botswana crossed the finish line in 3 minutes 29.38 seconds.
