The Sunday Mail
ZIMBABWEAN field athletes will have to find something special to raise their game as their personal best marks are way below those set by their counterparts in the Under-20 African Union Sports Council Region V Games which come to Bulawayo in just seven weeks’ time.
The annual sports fiesta is set for December 4-15 with 15 countries expected to participate.
It emerged last week that local field athletes were struggling to even get close to marks set by their likely competitors. Athletics junior national team coach Silas Muringani is naturally a worried man.
“Most of the javelin throwers in the boys’ category are not throwing beyond the 58m mark while on the flip side we have participants in the region, for instance, from South Africans and Namibia, who always aim for the 65m plus mark. These are the very same challenges in the discus and shot put events,” Muringani said.
Zimbabwean athletes will have to contend with standards like those set by 19-year-old South African Piet Kriel whose personal best javelin throw stands at 74,26m.
Javelin throwers Leon Fusire and Gary King, whose personal bests are at 53,85m and 53,34m, respectively, are Zimbabwe’s leading lights.
“The problem we have with these throw events is that most of the athletes are introduced to them at a later stage of their life and only practise them during the first (school) term, which is our athletics season. For the remainder of the year they are doing other things and this naturally affects their rhythm,” noted Muringani.
Muringani, however, has better hopes in middle- and long-distance track races.
“Our strength has emerged more in the middle- to long-distance events where Zambia can be a threat as they do fairly well. South Africa is a powerhouse in short sprints while Botswana normally has good runners in the long sprints; they do well in the 400m events.”
Westgate half-marathon and 2014 ZNYG 5 000m and 10 000m champion Tendai Zimuto is among the favourites to claim gold for Zimbabwe.
Zimuto’s personal best in the 5 000m is 14:32 minutes and has been improving his time since January, missing the World Championships qualifying time by just 14 seconds.
Nyasha Mutsetse, who specialises in the 800m and 1 000m, is another medal hopeful and her participation in the 5 000m and 8 000m events in Ukraine last year was a good primer for the regional competition.
