Athletics board prepares for 2020 global events

06 Dec, 2019 - 00:12 0 Views

The ManicaPost

Ray Bande Senior Reporter
THE country’s athletics administrative board — the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (NAAZ) — used its annual general meeting (AGM) last week to craft a plan to ensure effective participation of local athletes in 2020 international competitions.

The NAAZ annual indaba started with a federation strengthening workshop last Friday in Harare.

In an interview, NAAZ president Tendai Tagara said they used their AGM to plan for the World Juniors Championships, 2020 Olympics and Africa Seniors Championships, among other international competitions.

He said the participation of local athletes at international competitions in 2019 was greatly affected by financial constraints.

“We had our federation strengthening workshop on Friday that led us into the annual general meeting on Saturday before concluding on Sunday.

“We took this opportunity to strategise on forthcoming international events that include the Olympics 2020, Africa Junior Championships to be held in Kenya, the Africa Seniors Championships in May and for us the latter focuses more on relays.

“2019 was a bit difficult in terms of our participation in international events due to financial constraints. We took this opportunity to look at how best we can safeguard our athletes’ interests, especially when it comes to participation in international events,” said Tagara.

In some of the recent international contests, Zimbabwe has been fielding an enterprising 4x100m relay team that includes Ngoni Mukusha, Tendai Tsumba, Dickson Kapandura and Dickson Kamungeremu as well as triple jumper Tatenda Mapaya, who is based in the United States of America.

Mapaya was the only Zimbabwean track athlete at the World Championships in Doha.

Tagara said they also took time to craft the 2020 national calendar.

“This was also a chance for us to craft the national calendar for 2020. We also saw to it that we take steps to accelerate the effective participation of our district representatives in national administration of the sport.

“We really need to see all the 72 districts communicating regularly and participating in the governance and administration of athletics in the country,” said Tagara.

Meanwhile, the IAAF Level Two in sprints and hurdles started well with coaches from Botswana, Malawi and Zimbabwe in attendance.

The lecturer, one Kamani from Kenya, is in attendance.

He took participants through theory covering Sports Psychology Biomechanics Physiology and Nutrition.

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