Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
AS the local athletics season takes-off this week, the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe are hopeful of a fruitful year both on the local and international scene with the Olympic Games being one of their major targets.
The Games are scheduled for August in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
NAAZ president Tendai Tagara said the global sporting showcase is one of their focus areas and so far long-distance runners Wirimai Juwawo, Cuthbert Nyasango, United States-based Pardon Ndlovu and Gilbert Mutandiro have attained qualification times but there is still room for others to qualify.
Tagara said they are expecting more athletes to attain the qualification times and for women, they are pinning their hopes on Sharon Tavengwa, who represented the country at the London 2012 Games.
Olivia Chitate and Faith Nyasango are also on the radar of qualifying for the Games’ marathon.
Tagara said they will choose the best three athletes according to their times from each section, which is the maximum number of athletes they can field for marathon event at the Olympic Games.
“We are expecting to build a good team for the Olympics and the African Championships to be held in South Africa in June. We hope to send 30 athletes for the African Championships and that will be a barometer to measure our athletes for the Olympics. And it is the last qualifying opportunity also.
“We are targeting at least two women to qualify for the Olympics in marathon among Sharon Tavengwa, Olivia Chitate and Faith Nyasango. We will be assisting them to compete in Europe because we feel they stand a good chance with the new standards set by the IAAF.
“For women they adjusted the qualification time from 2 hours 43minutes to 2hours 45minutes and for men it’s now 2hours 19minutes from 2hours 18minutes. So it gives us the leeway to qualify.
“Nyasango now has the experience and I can see him in the top 10 again. He attained qualification for the Games two weeks ago when he ran 2hours 18minutes at the Fukuoka marathon in Japan. But he will be running in another race in March to improve his time because for marathon you can only send three athletes, so we will choose the best three according to their times.
“Juwawo is the best at the moment with a time of 2hours 14minutes while Ndlovu and Mutandiro have 2hours 17minutes,” said Tagara.
The NAAZ boss said they are satisfied with the progress they have made with their junior development programme and some will be graduating into the seniors as the season begins.
“We are expecting a better year because we are coming from a season where we were nurturing our juniors especially in the youth category.
“We are moving into a year where we want to create a brand of our seniors. We have juniors graduating to the seniors. In 2015 not many of our senior athletes performed well in the track and field. We had an unfortunate year with Gabriel Mvumvure and Ngoni Makusha incurring injuries during the season. But in the road races our athletes, especially those running in South Africa, did well,” said Tagara.
NAAZ will also be hoping that track and field athletes also make it for the Olympics with the qualifying indoor season expected to start around April.0
Besides the Olympic Games, some of the major events on their calendar include the CAA Africa Cross Country in March, IAAF World Indoor Championships in the United States and IAAF World half marathon championships set for Great Britain in the same month.
They are also hoping to send a team for the World Junior Championships in Kazan, Russia, scheduled for July while several local competitions will be held throughout the year in various provinces. Local events start this week with the national season opening cross country for cadets, youths and juniors on Saturday in Harare
The cross-country championships will be followed by the NAAZ track and field event featuring the same categories at the National Sports Stadium B Arena on the next day.