Online Reporter
Lovemore Dube, [email protected]
The White City Stadium event set for Saturday, dubbed the Wafawafa Athletics Championships, is significant in positioning athletes to critical observation and assessment for Zimbabwe’s national coaching structures as they align athlete development with upcoming regional and international competition pathways.
With the global athletics calendar for 2026 out, a packed season of championships across Africa and beyond lies ahead.
Zimbabwe’s national technical teams are focused on early-season domestic competitions as the foundation for informed, data-driven athlete selection and development as senior coach Phakamile Lisimati, junior gaffer Silas Muringani and youth trainer Braid Nhubu will be in attendance.
A number of events have been lined up and are a big incentive to budding local athletes vying for recognition and that break into international stardom.
Already publicised is the World Athletics calendar and a host of national and regional confederations’ events.
The high-profile meetings lined up include the World Athletics Relays in Botswana, the World Athletics World Junior Championships in the United States, the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) Under-20 Championships in Mauritius, the CAA African Senior Championships in Ghana, and the AUSC Region Games in Mozambique.
Against this backdrop, the Saturday Bulawayo event will provide national coaches and selectors a rare opportunity to view athletes from around Zimbabwe competing.
A senior official at the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe said the Bulawayo meet is being approached as a national talent-identification forum.
“The importance of this event is that it gives our national coaches an opportunity to physically observe athletes across disciplines. This is about seeing execution under pressure, race intelligence, technical consistency and competitive attitude, which are all essential indicators for future development,” said a senior National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe official.
The official explained that coaches will be observing athletes with multiple pathways in mind, including relay depth for regional competitions, junior progression toward global championships, and senior athletes building towards continental benchmarks.
“The World Athletics and regional calendars of events help us map where the sport ought to be going to. Our responsibility is to ensure that athletes, who are identified at events like this one to be held at White City, are placed on the correct development track, be it junior, Under-20 or senior further development,” said the official.
Saturday’s competition is expected to feed into a number of other activities expected to assist in assembling stronger national teams through the assessment platforms provided for athletes and Naaz.
Naaz is hopeful that this will support squad growth and competitiveness and provide for long term sustainability of viable national teams.
