THE National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (NAAZ) has shortlisted 60 athletes for the upcoming Confederation of African Athletics African Junior Athletics Championships scheduled for April 29 to May 3 in Zambia.
The squad was announced at the conclusion of the Gift Chigwere Track and Field Junior Championships which took place at White City Stadium in Bulawayo recently.
However, the final team will be announced in due course after all logistics have been finalised.
NAAZ chairperson Tendai Tagara said the selection event witnessed a huge turnout of athletes, who were seeking to meet the qualifying standards for the continental event.
“It was a successful event with a turn-up of more than 500 athletes who participated. This was also one of the best junior championships where 100m, 200m and 400m saw athletes running in heats and finally the final which saw outstanding performance,” said Tagara.
“We are sending a team of almost 30 for the Under-18 and another almost 30 again for the Under-20, making a total of almost 60 athletes travelling to Zambia being shortlisted. The final team will, however, be trimmed again because there are some who will be looking for travelling documents and those are some of the challenges we may encounter, but we hope that the majority will make it.
“Less than 10 athletes were able to meet the qualifying standards. We have tried to look at the youth team (Under-18) where there are low qualifying standards, which again the majority failed to meet,” he said.
Tagara also thanked the event sponsor Baldmin Holdings who were able to honour their promise for a selected few events.
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“The special events were the 400m and the 1500m where athletes were receiving cash prizes and trophies which were fulfilled by the sponsor. However, these athletes could not qualify for the scholarships because they could not maintain the times. Again, there weren’t many athletes who qualified for the upcoming championships. Remember there are set standards by the Africa Athletics Federation, then as a federation also, we set standards. Not many were able to meet the standard, that’s why the number of athletes travelling to Zimbabwe will be reduced,” said Tagara.
“So far we are also happy with the support from the government and we are hoping to get a bus and take the team to Zambia.”
