The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
The National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe has signed a development partnership with the Germany Olympic Committee which is expected to transform the local athletics field.
The four-year agreement will see Zimbabwe having access to Germany athletics experts and world class training facilities in the European country.
NAAZ president Tendai Tagara said they had initiated the co-operation agreement and expressed hope it will give local athletes an edge once it is complete. He said they have earmarked exchange programmes that will see local athletes training in Germany while German experts come to Zimbabwe for training programmes.
“Junior development will be high on the agenda along with training of trainers. We are also looking forward to high level seminars which we hope will have a positive impact on the development of athletes in the country,” said Tagara.
“We initiated the co-operation as Germany is one of the top nations when it comes to athletics and they have got world class training facilities, there are also a lot of Germans who are International Association of Athletics Federations instructors and they would be at our disposal. They have some of the best coaches in terms of sports science and areas of biomechanics and I believe this will greatly impact on our athletics,’’ said Tagara.
The Naaz president said the arrangement is in two phases, a short term, that would see an official from Germany coming down to assess the situation on the ground in the country and hold basic workshops with the trip expected to culminate in the crafting of a four-year long partnership between the two nations. Tagara said the first visit will be from IAAF Level Three coach, Torsten Tesch next month.
The respected athletics coach will be in the country for three weeks and during that period will facilitate at three workshops.
“The three workshops include Talent Identification and Development, which we believe is the basic step for those working with young athletes and it runs from 25 to 27 November followed by Kids Athletics, a course focused on emerging athletes from 29 November to 1 December. We close with a high level seminar in Jumps from 6 to 8 November,” said Tagara.
He said the Jumps seminar, whose subjects include high jump, triple jump and long jump, was a coup for the country as it is only usually held at the IAAF regional centre in Kenya and it was rare to be held for participants from one country adding it is an opportunity to expose local athletics teachers to the best world trends. The workshops will all be held at Belvedere Primary School in Harare.
