Online Reporter
Ellina Mhlanga-Zimpapers Sports Hub
THE Southern Region Senior Athletics Championships came to an end yesterday with Zimbabwe finishing second at the University of Zimbabwe.
The two-day meet saw senior and upcoming athletes from 10 countries battling it out for honours while others were pushing for improvement in their respective events during the track and field competition.
Botswana emerged winners after claiming 22 medals — 11 gold medals, four silver and 7 bronze.
Zimbabwe had a total of 34 medals, and they played second fiddle to Botswana in most of the events.
The hosts managed to pick up six gold medals, 15 silver and 13 bronze.
Zimbabwe had a good show, dominating most of the field events, with Wayne Nkomo coming first in javelin with a distance of 37.44m yesterday.
On Saturday she had picked gold in shot put and bronze in discus.
Kimberly Kachambwa won gold in women’s discus while Tatenda Mubariki won the men’s event.
Answer Tasara added another gold for Zimbabwe when crossing the finish line first in the women’s 5 000m in a time of 18 minutes 21.46 seconds, and Martha Chipuriro was second in 18 minutes 30.34 seconds.
Malawi’s Enifa Kaponda came third in 18 minutes 32.84 seconds.
Gerren Muwishi, who competed in 200m, 4x400m mixed relay and the men’s 4x400m relay expressed satisfaction with the team’s performance.
“Overall, I think it was good because most of the athletes in our team were juniors that went to Namibia and then to Nigeria.
“Generally I think the performances by everyone were brilliant. And if we had more time to prepare, this would have been a great competition for everyone,” said Muwishi.
The 4x400m relay team made up of Muwishi, Leeford Zuze, Dennis Hove and Thandazani Ndlovu settled for silver with a time of 3 minutes 07.37 seconds.
Botswana won the race in 3 minutes 06.08 seconds.
Eswatini were third in 3 minutes 17.88 seconds.
“As a team, generally I think we did great considering that Dennis and Leeford were injured for half of the season and they only came back for this specific competition.
“So to have run the time that we ran and to have ran against Botswana and came the position that we came in, it’s totally understandable.
“But they know that on a good day, we will give them a run for their money,” Muwishi said.
The Zimbabwe team captain expressed gratitude to the fans that attended the competition.
And said competing at home was a motivation.
“It meant everything because you are there trying to struggle in a race and then you hear your own people shouting in the terraces, shouting your name. It gives you that extra punch to go there.
“Personally, I was tired because I have been competing for the whole two days, but because I had people in the terraces shouting in the 4x400m, it gave me that extra push.
“So I think competing at home is a very big advantage because we get to have a feel of the atmosphere that’s from the people as well as of ourselves,” said Muwishi.
The likes of Tendai Zimuto, who competed in 10 000m used the meet as part of the build up to the upcoming World Athletics Championships in September.
He finished second in 30 minutes 43.33 seconds behind Botswana’s Oontse Lopang. Lopang crossed the line in 30 minutes 42.13 seconds.
On third place was Keffas Kasiteni of Malawi in 32 minutes 10.35 seconds.
One of the coaches for Botswana Nason Maotwe was pleased with competition and how his athletes rose to the occasion.
“I would say the competition went quite pretty well, despite the fact that the competition hasn’t been held for a very long time.
“I think it’s been five or six years without the competition, now the competition is back.
“And for my athletes, I think this is a very good experience for them because most of them are young, they haven’t gone to the international levels.
“But with this competition, I think we have seen that we have a very good and strong team.
“We took about two days to get here, but they put that thing behind them and just worked for the blue, black and white flag.”
The last edition of the regional meet was held in Mauritius about six years ago.
Mauritius were placed third with four gold medals and one silver.
Zambia and Lesotho came fourth and fifth respectively.
They were followed by Namibia and Eswatini on sixth and seventh position.
Mozambique were eighth and Malawi finished ninth while Seychelles were places 10th.
