Tshuma’s African Championships dream on knife edge

METHEMBE Tshuma heads into a decisive weekend in Pretoria with his place at the African Championships hanging by the slimmest of margins after narrowly missing the qualifying mark at the South African Engen Track and Field Championships.

The 20-year-old sprinter once again showed why he is regarded as one of Zimbabwe’s brightest speed prospects, but his results also highlighted how unforgiving the race for qualification has become as athletes compete for limited slots for Ghana in May.

Tshuma ran 10,50 seconds in the 100m — the sixth fastest time of the meet — but still outside the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe’s qualifying standard of 10,20 seconds. His earlier 10,05 seconds in Bulawayo cannot be considered as it was achieved on a non-accredited surface, leaving him with one final opportunity next weekend to meet the required time.

He came closest in the 200m, clocking a personal best of 20,97 seconds, just two hundredths of a second shy of the qualifying standard. The time was the fourth fastest of the competition and underlined his growing strength in the longer sprint.

Compatriot Ngoni Makusha posted 10,56 seconds in the 100m, with Kurarama Makande finishing in 10,93 seconds as Zimbabwe’s sprinters measured themselves against strong regional competition.

In the 200m, Makusha ran 21,30 seconds, while teenage prospect Clement Matumbu returned 11,13 seconds in the 100m and Isaac Maphosa recorded 11,24 seconds.

The Zimbabwean contingent only arrived in South Africa on Thursday after a gruelling 16-hour road trip from Bulawayo and Harare, giving them little time to recover before competing.

Tshuma remains confident that another week of training in Pretoria will position him for a final push.
“I am thrilled to have run a personal best of 20,97 seconds in the 200m. I am getting somewhere. Previously I ran 21,27 seconds. We are spending the whole week in Pretoria preparing for the Saturday event. We want to do better and even qualify. For now we need to rest and recharge before going back to the track,” he said.

Makusha has already achieved the qualifying time earlier this season with a 20,67-second run, although final team selection will depend on how many athletes Zimbabwe can afford to send, with established names Makanakaishe Charamba and Tapiwanashe Makarawu still to open their campaigns.