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Ellina Mhlanga
Sports Reporter
AS the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe stage the Inter-provincial Championships tomorrow in Bulawayo, the focus will be on assessing athletes in a competitive environment.

The meet at White City Stadium is going to be the first competition since March.

It will feature five track events – 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 5 000.  Most of the country’s leading athletes are expected to take part with some of those earmarked for qualification to the Olympics, such as Ngoni Makusha and Dickson Kamungeremu, confirming their participation.

Makusha is set to compete in the 400m and 200m.

Kamungeremu is going for 100m.

He said the championships will give him an idea of the progress he has made since resuming training.

“The Covid-19 pandemic affected us for a long time but, as professional athletes, we got training programmes from the coach,’’ he said.

‘‘And, since we were allowed back into training, as a low-risk sport, we have been meeting three times a week.

“It took time to get back into good condition because, at home, sometimes you don’t have enough space and time to fully focus.

“For the race in Bulawayo, we might not be as fit as we were before the outbreak of Covid-19.

‘‘We want to test our fitness and, for the last two weeks, we have been working on endurance and strength, so this will give me an idea of where I am.’’

The meet had been set for September before it was moved to this month to allow coaches and athletes more time to prepare.

Bulawayo Athletics Board chairman, Manuel Mpofu, said they have done their best to ensure they follow the Covid-19 guidelines.

“We came up with only five events 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 5 000m due to Covid-19 restrictions, which don’t allow relays and field events

“To make sure that we will have a limited number, we advised provinces to enter only two athletes per event per province.

‘‘We managed to source for sanitisers, face masks and fumigation liquid, which will be used to disinfect the facility before and after the meet.

“I am happy that all provinces entered one or two athletes for the meet despite the current situation,” Mpofu.

Defending champions, Harare province, are hoping to dominate again this year.

Their team includes the likes of Makusha, Kamungeremu, Michelle Zuze, 5 000m runners Canicious Wenjere and Winfred Mutiro.  Their provincial coaches coordinator, Collen Makaza, is confident they will get good results in Bulawayo.

“For this one, we only had the Covid-19 challenge leading to a long break without competition.

‘’But, we did our selection event last week to assess how ready our athletes are.

‘’We know they will compete, they will do well because they are hungry for competition,” said Makaza.

The national association are hoping to hold, at least, two events before the end of year.