Wayisoni wins cross-country champs

Sports Reporter
BLESSING Wayisoni is this year’s Manicaland cross-country championship’s 12km senior men’s race winner after he crossed the line in 35 minutes 15 seconds.

Although the Manicaland cross-country championships were marred by poor turnout of athletes, it was a tightly contested race in the senior men category where Wayisoni battled long and hard to outpace second-placed Charles Soza.

Soza clocked 35 minutes, 20 seconds, just five seconds shy of the eventual winner, Wayisoni.

The duo, together with other athletes selected by the Manicaland Athletics Board (MAB), will now represent the province in the national cross-country championships slated for Saturday (tomorrow) in the Mashonaland West city of Kadoma.

Caroline Hlomani was the 8km senior women champion after finishing the race in 32 minutes, 40 seconds.

In the junior men’s category, Richmond Tinorwa won the provincial title after crossing the line in 26 minutes, 48 seconds, beating Zimbabwe Prison Services’ Blessing Chinyowa, who completed the race in 27 minutes, 12 seconds.

MAB chairman Joshua Matume confirmed that the poor attendance by athletes negatively affected their provincial competitions.

Matume said they would also use the results from zonal cross-country competitions to select the 24 athletes they need to travel with to Kadoma.

“We had a low turnout of athletes during the provincial cross-country championships and this will negatively affect our preparations for the national event.

“The challenge that athletes faced is that most of them took part in the schools’ competitions a day before the provincial event hence most of them could not come for the provincial cross-country competitions.

“However, we will use the winners from zonal cross-country competitions to select the 24 athletes that we need to travel with to Kadoma,” he said.

Matume confirmed that athletes such as Buhera’s Caroline Mhandu, who is the reigning Youth Games champion, Dzidzai Gumede, Mamunyadza Secondary’s Marian Pfumbidzai might not have taken part in the provincial cross-country competitions but will be included in the team to represent the province owing to their impressive track record.