Team Zim fares well at African Senior Athletics Championships

THE National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (NAAZ) says Team Zimbabwe performed well at the just-ended African Senior Athletics Championships held at the Cote d’Or National Sports Complex in Saint Pierre, Mauritius.

Zimbabwe sent 10 athletes to the championships and only managed to pick up a bronze medal in the 4×100m men’s relay.The Zimbabwean team clocked 39.81 seconds to come third behind silver medalists South Africa and winners Kenya.

The team was made up of Ngoni Makusha, Denzel Siamualela and Bindura University of Science Education’s (BUSE) Tapiwa Makarawu and Dickson Kamugeremi. NAAZ director of coaching Lisimati Phakamile said the weather in Mauritius did not make life easy for Zimbabwe.

“The team generally fared well considering that we picked up a medal after a long time and also putting into consideration that we had a number of athletes going into the semi-finals and finals, which was quite impressive,” said Phakamile.

“We had Ngoni Makusha getting into the semi-final of the 200m and 100m. We also had Bindura University of Science Education’s Tapiwa Makarawu in the final of the 200m as a first-time athlete in a time of 20.08 seconds, which is good.

“The weather was very difficult for athletes to perform. It was raining, the track was wet and it was windy. It was too windy, but the athletes performed well despite the weather challenge. It was a great deal of experience for the athletes. All in all, l would say it was a good performance from the team.

BUSE National Academy’s Dickson Kamungeremu posted a time of 10.48 seconds in heat four of the 100m to finish third, but his time was not good enough to see him through to the semis.

It was the same story for Panashe Nhenga who came seventh in 10.79 seconds while Michelle Zuze was fourth in 12.10 seconds in the women’s 100m event, to miss the semi-finals.