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Lovemore Dube recently at the African Senior Athletics Championships in Doula, Cameroon
MORE Zimbabwe athletes may be confirmed for this year’s Paris Olympic Games when the International Olympic Committee confirms the lists this week.
Already assured is Isaac Mpofu who qualified for the Games in December of 2022 and fellow marathon runner Rutendo Nyahora who was invited by the IOC as more of a wild-card entry.
Tapiwanashe Makarawu whose 20.29 second 200m on the indoor scene was the second best on the circuit in 2024, qualified in April when he set the Zimbabwe record of 19.93 seconds.
With the blistering time, the sixth best this season, Makarawu bettered Brian Dzingai’s 20.02 seconds, which had stood for almost 20 years.
The Olympic qualifying mark for the 200m is 20.16 seconds.
Fellow United States of America based sprinter, Makanakaishe Charamba was the second track athlete to qualify for the Olympics with a massive 19.95 second effort.
His mark is the 10th best of the season.
Makarawu, as part of his season, took part in the African Senior Championships, which ended in Doula, Cameroon last Wednesday where he walked away with a silver medal after Chengetai Mapaya’s in the triple jump.
The 200m silver medallist may find himself qualifying for the 100m of the Olympics before the end of the week on points and ranking system. With the competition taking 56 athletes for the preliminaries, Makarawu’s 10,06 seconds is the 61st best time in the world this year.
What makes Zimbabwe optimistic is that a country can only field three qualified athletes per event at the Olympics.
A country like the US, has 18 runners who are in the top 70, Jamaica 10.
Even if taking 56, Makarawu will make it unless there are athletes who nick it this weekend in the final qualifiers today.
Another athlete seemingly certain to be there in Mapaya whose 16.87m best for 2024 is the 30th best jump is optimistic that he may make the cut of 32.
“It is not yet over. If they use rankings I am still in unless some athletes manage to qualify by Sunday. There is so much pressure at the last minute and everyone is pushing to be there. I am keeping my fingers crossed, something may happen my way,” said Mapaya on Tuesday evening as he prepared to leave for his American base.
In triple jump, only 10 athletes all season managed to have lengths better than the qualifying mark of 17,22m.
Team coach, Pakamile Lisimati remained positive that after a good season for Zimbabwe athletics, some athletes could qualify this coming week.
“There is still some adjudication to be done next week when World Athletics and IOC finalise the lists of participants. Qualification closes on Sunday, so to meet the quota of those to take part, IOC will be advised by World Athletics on who outside the automatic qualifiers has made it. We have one or two close cases for us to increase representation,” said Lisimati.
Hurdler, Ashley Miller who was fourth at the African Championships and a bronze medal winner at the African Games in Ghana in March, is not far off the surprise list.
Her 56.63 seconds is the 101st best time of the year in the 400m. But the US has 31 athletes who are in the top 100 and many female athletes failed to qualify for the Olympics leaving World Athletics to sweat this coming week.
Zimbabwe finished with two silver medals at the continental athletics showcase for one of the best results at that level.
At the last championships in Mauritius, Zimbabwe had a bronze medal.
“We are coming up. We have young athletes who will make it in the future. It’s a positive result, two silver, better quality than the one bronze in Mauritius in 2022,” declared Lisimati.
Online Reporter