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Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter—

NATIONAL Athletics Association of Zimbabwe president Tendai Tagara believes engaging IAAF Level Three coach, Torsten Tesch from Germany, to assist between this month and December will go a long way in turning around the sport in this country.Tesch is scheduled to conduct a talent identification course from November 24 to 27 at Belvedere Primary School and it will be followed by the kids athletics pencilled for November 29 to December 1.

From December 2 to 4 he will be assisting NAAZ to map out their strategic plan for the next four years and will conclude the programme with a seminar in jumps — triple jump, long jump and high jump — from December 6 to 8.

The German coach is expected in the country next Wednesday.

Tagara said they are looking at improving at the 2020 Olympic Games set for Japan after a disappointing outing in Brazil.

“We have just completed our four-year cycle and we achieved some of the things we were targeting such as having a fully-fledged office. We managed to have our juniors and youths competing at elite competitions.

“But we also missed on some of the things. We missed on performance, reaching the finals of the Olympics. It was one of the areas we were targeting. So it will be among the issues we are going to look at and see how best we can address those issues, so that come 2020 we reach the finals of the Olympics and also the World Championships,” said Tagara.

Tagara said the coming of Tesch comes after they negotiated with the Germany Olympic Committee for a long-term partnership.

“He works with the Germany Olympic Committee, but he is an IAAF coach. He is running four programmes, including talent identification and kids athletics, which is in the new curriculum, and we encourage teachers from primary schools to attend these two programmes.

“We are going to establish a long-term partnership programme with them (the Germany Olympic Committee). They will be coming in to assist us on a four-year cycle, but his coming is just a short-term programme.

“If we look at it, talent identification is key component of any sport development, this is the future and Germany are strong in that area. So with the strategic plan we want to see where we are, what is the vision and how can we assist each other going forward,” said Tagara.

Tagara said they have so far received an overwhelming response for the upcoming workshops and are targeting five participants from each province.