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Tendai Tagara

Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
THE National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe will today and tomorrow hold their general meeting at their head office in Gweru with a number of issues up for deliberation as they review the 2017 season and prepare for next year. The highlight of the meeting to be held at the national association’s offices will be the review of the strategic plan 2017 activities. They will also look at regional and international activities for 2018 with attention on the Summer Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in October. Also on the agenda is the re-engineering of their committees such as the finance committee, high-performance committee, marketing and fund-raising, women activities and kids athletics.

NAAZ president Tendai Tagara said while they have some good juniors coming up, their challenge is on retaining the talent and ensuring they remain competitive at senior level. “We are having performance camps, regional competitions in and out of Zimbabwe. Our concern is that every time a good junior comes up is snatched for a scholarship.

‘‘It’s good for the kid because it’s every kid’s dream but failing to prevail in athletics outside there it’s a challenge. Our juniors were outstanding regionally and internationally. From Cossasa to African Junior Championships in the presence of South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Morocco and Cameroon. It’s a great feat,” said Tagara.

While the national association is pleased with the juniors’ improvement this year, they have expressed concern over the failure to have any seniors qualifying for the World Championships this year. Tagara said while it is the norm to restructure their committees such as the high performance committee, the failure to qualify for the track and field events at the World Championships in London is also going to contribute on how they map the way forward.

“The World Championships was a disappointment, we did not have track athletes. In 2019 this must be seriously looked into. Long distance runners did well regionally,” said Tagara. Tagara said they have had to spread the meeting over two days as they also have governance issues they want to deal with.

“Usually it’s a day but because of critical issues of governance we have two days. We are saying we want to make sure we take stock of what we have done in terms of governance issues. For example, compliance to SRC, IAAF and improvement of handling funds, accountability,” said Tagara. The president will also present his report and provincial reports and audited accounts will also be presented.