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Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe National Paralympic Committee say they are now targeting the Tunis International Meeting — the IPC Athletics Grand Prix set for March in Tunisia — as a platform for more athletes to qualify for the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The Games are scheduled for September 7 to 18 and Zimbabwe so far has two athletes — Laina Sithole and Shepherd Gumede — who qualified for the world’s biggest paralympic event in athletics during the African Games in September.

The meet in Tunis is scheduled to run from March 24 to 27 with the classification set for 24 to 26 of the same month. The actual competition is on March 27.

Sithole qualified in the 100m and 200m T13 while Gumede made it in the 400m T13.

And the national paralympic committee recently held a week-long camp for 13 athletes they still hope will meet the qualifying standards as part of their periodic camps, which are expected to continue next year.

ZNPC secretary-general Lewis Garaba said they are hoping to send at least six athletes to the event in Tunis.

“We are hoping to have another camp in January, probably the last week of January and then in March hoping to go to Tunisia for the Tunis International Meeting where almost all African countries and some European countries will be competing.

“We are going there mainly for classification and qualification. We are hoping to send about six athletes so we still have chances of more athletes qualifying for the Games after Laina and Shepherd qualified at the African Games in Congo Brazzaville.

“We are confident because we had two people qualifying in Congo Brazzaville and it shows that we have the capacity.

These are new athletes but have good records, they have competed at the Region Five Games and other meets. And having periodical camps will also go a long way in preparing our athletes because this is the first of its kind,” said Garaba.

Zimbabwe last got a medal at the Games in 2004 through Elliot Mujaji in the 100m event and for the 2008 and 2012 editions the going has been tough for Team Zimbabwe at the Games.

In 2012 they had two athletes Mujaji and wheelchair tennis player Nyasha Mharakurwa competing in London.

However, for next year Garaba said they are concentrating on athletics only and pointed out that for other disciplines the country still has a long way to go to match the competing standards at the prestigious event that features some of the world’s best athletes.

“We want to concentrate on athletics because it’s not expensive and in the other disciplines we still have a long way to go in terms of qualification.

And this time we are not just taking people to the Games for the sake of numbers, we want to win.

“At the moment we have 13 athletes we are working with towards qualification and we are hoping to have six to eight of them qualifying,” said Garaba.