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Tadious Manyepo Sports Reporter
FAST-RISING para-athlete Vimbai Zvinowanda has spiced up her super sporting weekend in Marrakech, Morocco by grabbing a Paralympics ticket.
The T47 400m specialist racer will be in Paris, France for the quadrennial fiesta scheduled to run from August 28-September 8 following her prowess in the event at the 2024 World Para-Athletics Grand Prix in Morocco on Sunday night.
Zvinowanda, who had narrowly missed qualification for the Paris Games in the 200m race on Saturday despite winning gold gave an assured display as she didn’t only come first for the gold in the 400m but was well within the minimum qualification requirement of 01.10.00sec when vaulting over the line in 1.06.22sec.
After atoning for her near miss in the Saturday event, Zvinowanda expressed her excitement following the achievement.
“I am so excited. It was always my prayer to win gold at this level of competition. I have always trained hard. This is unbelievable. I can’t even imagine if it is really me who has just got the world under my feet,” said Zvinowanda.
“To win a gold in each of my specialist races, that is the 200m and 400m events, is something that will be etched in my mind for a long time to come.
“It was always my wish that one day I would raise my country’s flag high in international events. I would like to thank God for giving me the grace to finish all my races and also winning them.
“Special mention goes to my coach Elliot Mujaji who has worked tirelessly to fine-tune me. I would also like to thank everyone who has been behind me in my growth to be the sports-person that I am today.”
Of the five para-athletes who comprise Team Zimbabwe at the global contest, only Zvinowanda managed to clinch a place at the Paralympics.
But all the para-athletes gave it their best shot with Kudakwashe Chigwedere giving the country its third gold medal after coming first in the T47 200m sprint.
Hitting the finish line in 23.51sec, Chigwedere was agonizingly close to punching a Paralympic Games card but was 11sec slower in a race whose qualification cap was 23.40sec.
He was even closer to an automatic qualification when coming third in the 100m event but only 0.003sec stood between him and a plane to Paris, arriving in 11.63sec against the entry standard of 11.60sec but nonetheless gave a bronze medal to the country.
Team leader Masimba Mutemaringa, who is also the Chef de Mission for Team Zimbabwe at the Paris Games, has already applied for a Bipartite Commission Invitation qualification for Chigwedere to the Games.
T47 100m racer Tinotenda Mujaji came fourth and missed qualification by 2.23sec while Clement Nyoni who is a T46 200m sprinter also missed qualification by the same time frame after coming fourth. Tinotenda Bango raced to fourth place as well in the T47 200m event and Mutemaringa has since applied for alternative qualification by invitation for the athletes for them to be at the Paralympic Games in France.
Online Reporter