Zimpapers Logo

Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
HARARE Athletics Board secretary-general Silas Muringani has expressed confidence in their provincial team for the National Cross-country Championships set for this weekend at Morris Depot.

The event, organised by the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe, is slated for Sunday and all provinces are expected to participate.

The championships will see the senior men competing in the 12km race while senior women and junior men will fight for the top honours in the 8km event.

Junior women will compete in the 6km race.

Muringani said they are fielding a full team in all the races since they are the hosts and are optimistic most of their athletes will make it into the national side that will represent the country in the Africa Cross-country Championships in Yaoundé, Cameroon, next month.

“We are fielding a full team. We have Olivia Chitate who won last year’s event and she went to China for the World Championships. We should have many of our athletes qualifying for the national team. We also have Tendai Zimuto, Faith Nyasango and Munyaradzi Jari in our team.

“We cannot rule out the veterans like Kelvin Pangiso and Collin Makaza. They are coming to compete, they were at our provincial event. We are also going to field the cadets for exposure so that they know the level of competition at this level. So for Harare we have 40 athletes,” Muringani said.

Muringani said besides the provincial teams, the event is open to independent athletes and they will have the opportunity to challenge for places in the national team.