Online Reporter
Ellina Mhlanga
Zimpapers Sports Hub
THE men’s 4x400m relay team got a shot in the arm on Wednesday for their World Relays participation with the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee announcing they will provide air tickets for their trip to Botswana.
The meet will take place on May 2 and 3 in Gaborone.
However, the team made up of captain Gerren Muwishi, Leeford Zuze, Thandazani Ndhlovu and Dennis Hove will leave early to compete in the Golden Grand Prix on April 26 in Botswana which will be their final leg of their preparations.
After the Golden Grand Prix, the quartet, will remain in camp in Botswana until the World Relays.
ZOC chief executive Marlene Gadzirayi announced their support during a press conference held by the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe on Wednesday at a local hotel in Harare.
The event on Wednesday also doubled as a send-off for Team Zimbabwe.
With just two years before the next Olympic Games in Los Angeles in the United States, ZOC have taken a keen interest on athletes with a strong potential to make the cut for the global sports showpiece and have been helping different associations in various ways.
“On behalf of the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee, I just want to express our excitement at the feat that the relay team showed as they represented Zimbabwe.
“That is something that as the Olympic Committee we keep looking forward to.
“And obviously in terms of our sport priorities athletics is number one and so, we are proud as the Olympic Committee to have supported the team when they travelled to Lesotho and Botswana.
“And I also just want to announce, I know the NAAZ president may not know this as yet, but we will fund their flights to the World Relays to and from as part of you know a broader vision for the qualification to the Olympics,” said Gadzirayi.
It is the first time the event will be staged on the African soil.
