adminInterestingly though, of the four, only David Tinago and Francis Zimwara compete in track events as the other two, Clive Chafausipo and a virtually unknown Jon Duschele, are long jumpers.
Speaking to Chronicle Sport on Wednesday, Mungwari said Zimbabwe managed to send four athletes, Brian Dzingai, Malvern Bonde, Anthony Hobwana and Zimwara while Gabriel Mvumvure had visa problems hence could not travel.
With only the world’s top 18 relay teams making it to the London Olympics Games, Zimbabwe now has one last chance of trying to better their 39.20 second time and hope to be among the world’s elite relay teams for the 27 July to 8 August extravaganza.
The next event is the Confederation of African Athletics in Morocco on 7 July, a day before the qualifying deadline.
Dzingai was supposed to compete in the 100m heat one while Bonde was slotted for heat five but both athletes were conspicuous by their absence on the results list while Hobwana was not even on the list.
Contacted for comment on the absence of Bonde, Dzingai and Hobwana, Mungwari sounded shocked that the athletes never made it.
“The only reasonable explanation I can give is that they did not make it otherwise how can we not have their results like other athletes?
“I am not sure why they did not make it but as you can see by the fact that their names are appearing on the start lists, it means they had registered for the competition,” said Mungwari.
As the athletics boss in the country, the long serving Mungwari ought to have been in the know on the whereabouts of the athletes and whether they had even landed in Benin.
Meanwhile, Zimwara came a credible third in the 100m dash heat eight, clocking 10.83 seconds in an event won by Hitjivirue Kaanjuka of Namibia in a time of 10.69 seconds. The hosts’ Fiacre Bahorou came second in 10.75 seconds and unfortunately for the Zimbabwean, only the first two qualified for the semi-finals.
Tinago was a disappointing sixth in the 400m race, coming home in 48.53 seconds, way beyond his personal best of 47.40 seconds.
In the long jump event, Clive Chafausipo qualified for the finals after jumping 7.53 metres and taking position six before improving by 15 centimetres in the final for a fourth place finish while Duschele could only manage a shocking 5.75 metre jump.
The championships end tomorrow with Zimbabwe, like most of their counterparts in other disciplines, coming home empty handed once more.
Online Reporter