The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWEAN golfer, Scott “Mhodoro” Vincent carries the country’s remaining hopes of a medal at the Tokyo Olympics when he heads into the final day of action in individual golf at the Kasumigaseki Country Club today.
At the end of round three yesterday, Vincent was 17th on the leaderboard with a seven under. Yesterday, he shot five under 66 on a day when he did not drop a shot. The 29-year-old now needs some last day heroics to make it into the top 10 or fight for a medal place.
Vincent is the best ranked African male golfer on the championship, better than the South African duo of Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Garrick Higgo. Zimbabwe Golf Association vice-president, Martin Chikwana was delighted by Vincent’s flawless third round display yesterday.
Vincent Scott
“It means that he played almost a perfect round, he had three birdies on the front nine and two birdies on the back nine and no bogeys, which means he didn’t drop a shot. The par score for that course is 71, so he gained five shots on the course in round three. In round two, he was also four under par, which was also another beautiful round,’’ Chikwana said.
Heading into the last day, Chikwana feels that Vincent could still make it into the top 10 or even fight for a place on the podium if things go his way.
“You never know, if he shoots something ridiculous like six under, eight under, which is impossible but doable, you could find him get into the top 10 if not into the top three easily because he is seven shots behind, but that doesn’t mean that the guys that are seven shots ahead are going to play a perfect round, they could drop some shots and we could gain some shots so its well set for a very brilliant final round and I wouldn’t say expect a medal but don’t rule it out,’’ said Chikwana.
Sprint athlete, Ngoni Makusha had a day of mixed emotions in his 100m sprint at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium.
Makusha won heat one in a time of 10.32 seconds but fell short in his next race, heat six when he finished seventh in 10.43 seconds in a race that was won by South Africa’s Akani Simbine in 10.08 seconds. Makusha could not progress to the semi-finals, which means that his interest at the Olympics is over.
Simbine is one of the favourites to win today’s 100m final together with the likes of Jamaican Yohan Blake, Canadian Andre De Grasse Great Britain’s Zharnel Hughes and Ronnie Baker of the United States of America. — @Mdawini_29.
