THE Zimbabwe team says it is ready to compete at the World Athletics Championships which will be held in Hungary between August 19 and 27.
Zimbabwe will field four athletes, comprising three marathon runners- Isaac Mpofu, Ngonidzashe Ncube and Fortunate Chidzivo and United States-based sprinter Tapiwa Makarawu.
Last year, the trio of triple jumper Chengetayi Mapaya, sprinter Tinotenda Matiyenga and Mpofu represented the country at the global stage in Oregon, the United States.
Mpofu managed to break the national marathon record.
The marathon trio has been in camp since July 1 as part of preparations.
Coach Benson Chauke is hoping that the athletes can improve their personal best times and qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
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“The preparations have gone on smoothly for the three home-based athletes. We are now moving towards the tapering period where we no longer give the athletes heavy loads,” he said.
“We will take it easy so that they recover from the heavy work out they have done in the past two to three months. Everything has gone on well, the morale is high and we work with what we have and we are impressed with the progress made so far.”
Added Chauke: “The preparations are always aimed at enabling our athletes to compete to their best of ability against the world’s best. Our target for this competition is to represent our country well and raise the flag high. We also target to qualify for the next major competition- the Olympics Paris 2024. We have an opportunity to either qualify by position or by time at this particular event and we are working on attaining those qualifying times and positions.”
The coach is banking on the athletes’ experience having competed at such big stages before.
Chidzivo participated at the 2017 World Championships in London, while Ncube and Mpofu took part in the 2019 meet in Qatar.
Chauke further said: “When you train people for an international meet, it is very difficult for one to say whatever I have done is the correct thing and will go and work. All we need to master is developing bio- mortar abilities that are demanded for a marathon competition and we have been working on improving them from the word go.
“As a coach you’ll be looking forward to everything that you have worked for, coming together to give a positive result. It is everyone’s wish that when a team goes for a competition, it’s going to be a result per medal but for us we know it requires patience on the athletes so that they are not under pressure.”