Chronicle Editor
Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
WHITE City Stars Athletics Club has closed the registration process for their open track championship after reaching their set limit of 100 participants to take part in the meet set for today.
The event will be held at White City Stadium in Bulawayo, and will be the first event for the club since its formation in 2019.
The academy was formed by veteran athletics administrator Manuel Mpofu, but has largely been inactive due to stringent Covid-19 lockdown measures from last year until they were eased a few weeks ago.
“We are excited that all our arrangements are going according to our schedule.
“Teams have submitted their entries and we are ready to go. We will have 100 athletes taking part in this competition. Athletes who will excel will get small incentives to motivate them courtesy of club partners and friends,” said Mpofu.
Covid-19 protocol measures that have been put in place are such that athletes, coaches and officials will use one entrance along Hyde Park Road. Athletes are to leave the stadium soon after finishing their events.
Athletes will compete in the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, Mile, 5 000m, 10 000m and relays.
Meanwhile, Naaz is still finalising the list of athletes that will go on to represent the country at the African Union Sports Council Region 5 Youth Games (Ausc) in December.
Last month, Naaz held track and field selection events in Bulawayo and Harare and came up with a long list of athletes in contention to make the trip to Malawi.
Team Zimbabwe will consist of 16 girls and 16 boys.
The AUSC games were postponed last year due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The decision to postpone the Games by 12 months was taken by the Ausc Region 5 Ministers’ Troika in July last year after a surge in Covid-19 cases around the region.
The Ausc Region 5 Youth Games are staged every two years and hosted by member countries on a rotational basis in alphabetic order. – @innocentskizoe
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter