Dorothy Sithole
Lovemore Dube, [email protected]
It’s real, it’s happening, Zimbabwe now ranks among the world’s top sprinting nations .
Zimbabwe athletes could not have hoped for a better platform to prove themselves than Saturday’s performance when the boys finished third in their semi-final heat and sixth fastest of the stage.
The quartet of Leeford Zuze, Dennis Hove, Gerren Muwishi and Thandazani Ndlovu with their national record breaking time of 2 minutes 59.01 seconds qualified for the 4x400m relay final at Gaborone National Sports Stadium in Botswana today.
Zimbabwe finished third to heat winners South Africa who clocked 2:58.04 and second placed Portugal who timed 2:59.01. They won the race by torso.
With the top two teams in the groups qualifying, Zimbabwe got to the next stage courtesy of being the best third placed team. They benefitted from the competition in the group to lie an overall sixth and claim a place in the final today and in next year’s World Championships in China.
The team has been on a roll breaking the 4x400m national record last month of 3:00.79 setting a new mark of 3:00.69.
For 29 years local athletes failed to better the previous mark set by Phillip Mukomana, Saviery Ngidhi, Tawanda Chiwira and Ken Harden.
Online Reporter