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Collin Matiza and Grace Chingoma
THE Zimbabwe men’s 4x100m relay team were in for a rude awakening at the IAAF World Relay Championships in Yokohama, Japan, on Saturday where they were disqualified in the qualifying heats of the two-day meet which ended yesterday.

Dickson Kamungeremu, Tatenda Tsumba, Itai Vambe and Ngoni Makusha were representing Zimbabwe in the men’s 4x100m event at the World Relay Championships for the first time and they arrived in Yokohama with their hopes high after having qualified for the global show-piece by posting a new national record of 38.95 seconds when coming first at the Lefika Athletics Club championships in Gaborone, Botswana, towards the end of March this year.

But Kamungeremu, Tsumba, Vambe and Makusha found the going tough in Yokohama on Saturday when they finished last in the eight-team Heat Two of the qualifying heats which was won by Italy in 38.29 seconds. France (38.46 seconds) and Turkey (38.47) came second and third respectively to qualify for last night’s finals.

Gold medal in the men’s 4x100m relay went to Brazil who won last night’s final in 38.05 seconds ahead of the United States (38.07 seconds) and Great Britain (38.15 seconds). On Saturday, Zimbabwe were placed in Lane Two with Kamungeremu running the opening 100m followed by Tsumba and Vambe with Makusha running the anchor leg but they found the event a high mountain to climb for them as they came home last and were subsequently disqualified after the starter (Kamungeremu) was ruled to have “stepped on the line”, according to reports from Yokohama.