Zimbabwe athletes in record-breaking performances on road to Olympics

THE month of April was great for Zimbabwe athletics with a number of athletes turning on the power to record great times feats.

Tapiwa Makarawu whom we dubbed Zimbabwe’s brightest prospect for the Olympics in February, after his January 13, 20.29 seconds mark in the indoor 200m, ended the season as the second best, on Friday last week vindicated Zimpapers Sports Hub’s assertion. He ran a blistering outdoor time of 19.93 seconds in the 200m, to set a new national record in Texas on April 26.

He obliterated Brian Dzingai’s mark of 20.12 seconds set in the early 2000s.

Notably, in the 200m world rankings, Makarawu finds himself fourth behind Christian Miller of the United States, who has covered the distance in 19.71 seconds tied on the time with Letsile Tebogo of Botswana.

Third spot is occupied by Tarzis Orogot of Uganda.

Makarawu’s time is the fourth best in the world this season and qualified him for the Paris Olympics, joining marathon runner Isaac Mpofu and rower Steve Cox.

It’s been his year so far, as in the 100m he is not far off from qualifying.

He has a 35th best time in the 100m in the world and needs to chop off 0.14 seconds to make the grade, an achievable feat.

His best in the 100m has been 10.14 seconds. Countryman and potential teammate in a 4x100m relay team, Clinton Muunga has a best for 2024 of 10.18 seconds.

Muunga is ranked 15th and Tinotenda Matiyenga 83rd with a best of 20.58 seconds.

Charamba ran a personal best of 20.23 seconds well outside but near the Olympic qualifying standard of 20.16 seconds.

National high jump record holder Kudakwashe Chadenga jumped 2.22m on April 20, to stay 11 cm off the Olympic Qualifying standard.

On April 13, Chengetai Mapaya jumped 16.75m to stay 47cm off the qualifying standards. Mapaya is the 23rd best man this season in triple jump.

Tendai Zimuto will count himself unlucky for failing to make the cut for the Olympics after his fourth position finish in a marathon run at Enschede in the Netherlands on April 21. He covered the marathon in 2 hours 09 minutes 30 seconds well outside the qualifying standard for Paris Olympics of 2 hours 08 minutes 10 seconds.

Zimbabwe girls had Ashley Miller recording a time of 56.53 seconds in the 400m hurdles.

Marathon athlete, Rutendo Nyahora’s hopes of being part of the Paris Olympics contingent were blown away on April 14 when he ran the 42km in 2 hours 34 minutes 39 seconds.

Meanwhile this year’s qualification process is similar to the Tokyo Olympic Games one.

The qualification system is based on a dual pathway with 50 percent of athletes qualifying through entry standards and the remaining quota qualifying through World Rankings.

The qualification system was approved by the World Athletics Council and includes details of the qualification windows, targeted number of athletes per discipline and entry standards.

For the 10,000m, combined events, race walks and relays, the qualification period runs from 31 December 2022 to 30 June 2024. For the marathon, the qualification window is from 1 November 2022 to 30 April 2024. For all other events, the qualification period runs from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024.

For the marathon, any athlete ranked higher than the 65th athlete on the filtered Quota Place “Road to Paris” list on 30 January 2024 will be considered qualified. After 30 January 2024, the remaining 20 percent of the quota will be determined by the same dual pathway qualification criteria outlined above, without displacing the athletes qualified per 30 January 2024.

Any national Olympic committee may choose to re-allocate a quota place to an unqualified athlete, provided the athlete in the qualification window has achieved at least a 2:11:30 (men) meaning Zimuto could sneak in or 2:29:30 (women) performance.

Number of athletes per event

56 (100m), 48 (200m), 48 (400m), 48 (800m), 45 (1 500m), 42 (5 000m), 27 (10 000m), 40 (110m hurdles/100m hurdles), 40 (400m hurdles), 36 (3 000m steeplechase), 32 (high jump), 32 (pole vault), 32 (long jump), 32 (triple jump), 32 (shot put), 32 discus throw, 32 hammer throw, 32 (javelin throw), 24 decathlon/ heptathlon, 48 (20km race walk), 80 (marathon)