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Ellina Mhlanga
Senior Sports Reporter
JUST over two weeks after their Paris 2024 Games sojourn, Zimbabwe Olympic Committee president Thabani Gonye feels the country’s performance at the global sport’s show-piece gave them the biggest indication of some of the areas they need to build on for the 2028 edition.
The next Olympics are scheduled for Los Angeles in the United States.
In Paris Zimbabwe had seven athletes competing in athletics, rowing, and swimming. Athletics produced the best results with two sprinters reaching the men’s 200m final and a top-20 finish in the men’s marathon.
Athletics is one of the few sport codes that have been consistent in terms of representation at the Olympics.
For this year’s Games, athletics had some of the athletes posting competitive times during the qualifying period, which also put them in good stead for the actual Games.
Gonye said some of the areas they are going to be focusing on include sprints and marathon. And ZOC have joined hands with some of their counterparts in the region who include Zambia and South Africa, to work together in specific areas they believe they have the potential to produce results for the country.
“We have an MoU with Team Zambia. We also have an MoU with Team SASCOC.
“We are also going to sign another MoU with Botswana as we have already been working together in terms of targeting specific areas where we believe we can be a force to reckon with,” Gonye said.
“And the revelation of the results from the Paris Games does show us that we are very good at sprints.
“There is a project we have been talking about over the last few months, where we are going to build a base around the sprints and relays,” he said.
Botswana have been on the rise in athletics over the past years with Letsile Tebogo writing his piece of history at the Paris Games.
He became the first sprinter from the continent to win an Olympic gold medal in the men’s 200m.
ZOC have embraced former athletes and Olympians, among other key people, who they believe can contribute to their projects.
They have been working with several people including the likes of United States-based Brian Dzingai around the sprints project.
“We had a very good engagement in Paris. “We will be building a base around the sprinters, on around the relay project. “We will also be building a project around the marathon, but we will not neglect some of the potential shoots that we see in various sport codes.
“We are certainly going to be focusing more on the sport codes that we believe we stand a very good chance to qualify very competitively and fight for podium places,” said Gonye.
Tapiwanashe Makarawu and Makanakaishe Charamba’s show at the Paris 2024 Games, when they reached the 200m final, generated a lot of interest during the Games.
Gonye said they would want to tap into that support which they believe can contribute to achieving their goals as the athletes have shown there is potential and the possibility to break to the next level. “We need corporate support and we need all the partners.
“We saw the support we got from the nation and we are going to be tapping into it to ensure we have long-term partners.
“Also, we hope to partner with the government to ensure that we work with one mind, one goal of going to be very effective in LA.
“We are very clear about where we are going”.
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