The Sunday News
Mandla Moyo, Sports Reporter
A NUMBER of athletes from around the country converged at White City Stadium in Bulawayo yesterday to take part in National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe Track and Field Championships.
The preparatory meetings held under the watchful eye of the local athletics regulatory body Naaz are aimed at identifying and short listing athletes for the upcoming regional plus international events. According to Bulawayo Athletics chairman Manuel Mpofu that was a talent identification meeting for the national association.
“Today we are here to shortlist athletes who are going to be participating in the Under-18 and Under-20 African Games which are going to be held in Cote d’Ivoire in April. At the same time we are also shortlisting athletes for the African Games and World Championships those are the major events for the year 2019,” said Mpofu.
The Bab chairman was also impressed by the turnout of athletes who came in their numbers to showcase their talents in various sporting activities set for the day. Athletes took part in a number of events among them senior men’s 1 000m, girls and boys aged under-20 were also given the platform to do their thing in events ranging from 5 000m, 10 000m, high jump and long jump.
“The turnout was marvellous because we have people from Gwanda, Malipati, Mutoko, Victoria Falls and the was competition superb,” said Mpofu.
Impressive performances were recorded in high jump where Mathew Musamanyada cleared 2.06m that was also the case in the 5 000m among other events held on the day. The best athlete in the 10 000m event was Dumo Mkhwananzi from Sparrows who broke the tape in 33.15 minutes. Mpofu believes working hand-in-glove with the coaches those athletes can improve their timings as they prepare for future assignments.
