Woe and despair among Zim athletes

Lawson Madzivanyika
LOCAL athletes have lamented the lack of adequate training facilities, which they say hinders their bids to qualify for international tournaments.
The majority of local athletes participating in regional and African tourneys have failed to qualify for the Olympic Games.Speaking to The Sunday Mail Sport, some athletes (names withheld) bemoaned the lack of training facilities and poor preparations.
“Our biggest challenge is that we don’t use a tartan track during training, we only use tartan in competitions so how do you expect us to perform well. We compete against athletes from other countries who train on a tartan track,” one of them said. A number of athletes have gone as far as Cameroon, Mauritius, South Africa and Namibia to try and attain Olympic qualification to no avail. Most local meets are done at the National Sports Stadium Arena B, which is far from attaining international standards. The National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe cannot afford the high costs of using the main arena.
NAAZ secretary-general Silas Muringani said, “Our athletes do not even have access to such turfs during preparations for major tournaments. Some use grass fields for training and it becomes a challenge to perform during international tournaments. “In addition, the price charged to access sporting facilities is very high and unaffordable to athletes making preparations difficult.” Sports and Recreation Minister Makhosini Hlongwane is on record saying they were in talks with Local Government Ministry authorities over stadium charges. “Until now nothing has materialised from the two ministries and as an association we feel they are letting us down,” said Muringani. Athletes have been using sneakers at events instead of professional running shoes (spikes). It is mandatory to wear spikes at international competitions. Said Muringani, “As an association we do not force athletes to use spikes but we encourage them because that is what is required during competitions.”