The Sunday News
Sports Reporter
THE National Athletics Associations of Zimbabwe might send a team of 20 athletes to the second edition of the African Youth Championships that will run from 23 to 26 April in Mauritius. This was said by NAAZ national director of coaching and talent identification Phakamile Lisimati, who also bemoaned the death of female participation in athletics.
“We will need 20 athletes and we only have selected three presently, however, we will attend Nash events as we are hoping to secure more athletes though our challenge is on female athletes,” Lisimati said.
He said the target for the Mauritius expedition was 10 males and an equal number of females. He, however, said the challenge was on female athletes, a development that would see the travelling party comprising more boys than girls.
The Championships will feature athletes under the age of 18.The three athletes who have been selected are the usual suspect, Enlitha Ncube who will run in the 800m and 1 500m, Wonder Walezani (400m) and Nyasha Sithole (100m, 200m).
“Though Enlitha is a middle distance runner, we have observed that she has managed to perform well in 800m and hence we will feature her in both races,” said Lisimati.
“We are quite hopeful that we will manage to secure the number of athletes as we have been religiously attending the NAAZ field and track events which have been staged in Harare and Bulawayo and next week Harare will host the fourth edition where we are likely to select outstanding athletes who have impressed.
“Our final athletes’ selection will be at the Nash finals in March where we are hoping we would have rounded off the team and we aim to get them into camp so that we can closely monitor their progress,” he said.
