Zimpapers Logo

Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter

NATIONAL Athletics Association of Zimbabwe say long-distance runner Isaac Mpofu, who was disqualified after winning the Durban International Marathon in KwaZulu Natal on Sunday, had been cleared by the organisers to race with one bib.

Mpofu was left distraught after he was told to forfeit his R50 000 prize and the title. He had also secured a slot at this year’s World Athletics Championships after smashing the qualifying time.

NAAZ head of the national event coaches for the middle and long-distance runners, Benson Chauke, yesterday told The Herald that they were not happy with Mpofu’s disqualification.

He said Mpofu had played by the rules and had been given the green light to participate after he had alerted the authorities that his race package had one bib missing.

But Athletics South Africa still ruled that the Zimbabwe Republic Police Athletics Club athlete was disqualified according to the rules which require athletes to display license numbers both on the front and back of their bibs.

Mpofu was only wearing a front bib and didn’t have a bib at the back. Chauke, who returned yesterday afternoon with the small delegation of five athletes and three coaches, shed more light on what transpired in South Africa.

“We went to collect race packs from the organisers on Saturday afternoon around midday. Three coaches were there (Collen Makaza, Cephas Pasipamire and Chauke himself).

“The race packs are like bib numbers and are put in a sealed envelope. We collected the sealed envelopes, including the T-shirts that the athletes were going to be given.

“After collecting we even asked “is this what each athlete is supposed to get?” And they said yes. I even asked “is it not possible to make mistakes or omissions during production” and they said we don’t make such mistakes.

“We left and went back to our rooms with the assurance we had gotten that there were not going to be any challenges, and we gave out the race packs to the athletes.” Chauke said the missing bib was picked out by Mpofu’s manager before the race and he raised the issue with the race officials.

“For us, it was an assumption that whatever was there was supposed to be used for the race. But when we got to the starting point, Isaac’s manager discovered that Isaac only had one number. Then he alerted the race referee, and later even called the race organiser, and they allowed Isaac to run,” said Chauke.

“So after running and winning, and the whole team celebrating, only then did a few other South African athletes make an appeal that he didn’t have the second number.

“Then together with Isaac’s manager, who had communicated with the race referee, as well as the race organiser, we made an appeal to say “we alerted you of this, and you allowed Isaac to run, so where is our mistake?’ But they went on to disqualify him,” he said.

Mpofu clocked 02: 10: 04 as the first man home. The time also means that he qualified for the World Athletics Championships due to take place in the United States in Oregon in July. The global meet qualification time is 2 hours 11 minutes 30 seconds.

NAAZ have since appealed against Chauke’s disqualification and are keeping their fingers crossed with the hope it could be overturned.

“We have since made an appeal through Isaac’s manager, who is based in South Africa. We have also informed our national federation of what happened and our national federation has made an appeal to ASA. So this issue is now being handled at that level,” said Chauke.

Away from that disappointing episode, the Zimbabwean athletes who ran the 10km race posted personal good times. They came second, third and sixth in the race that was run simultaneously with the 42.2km event.

Wellington Varevi came second in 00:28:59.

He was behind winner Siyabonga Ndlovu who clocked 00:28:51.

Moses Tarakinyu romped home at 00:29:10 while Tendai Zimuto clocked 00:30:29.

“The other three athletes did very well. Wellington came second, Moses came third and Tendai came sixth. They all ran a good time. Their ranging time was from 28 to 30 minutes among themselves, which is a very good feat, and probably the best times that they have recorded for themselves.

“We are happy with their performance.

“But of course, the whole celebratory mood was dampened by this unfortunate incident.

“Hopefully sanity and reason will prevail, and that as they discuss at that higher level, maybe they will come up with a position as they look at what laws were used to disqualify, and whether it was fair, or it was not fair.

“But for us to comment, and judge, for now, it’s no longer at our level but at the federation level and at World Athletics level,” said Chauke.