Zimbabwe’s ever green marathon runner Isaac Mpofu gave another good account of himself after finishing in the top 20 of the men’s marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, yesterday
Mpofu, who was the first Zimbabwean to pick his ticket to Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, ended the race on a plausible 16th position.
He, however, failed to improve on his 10th place finish he achieved at last year’s Championships in Eugene, the United States, where he clocked an impressive 2:07:5s to set a national record.
In Budapest, the 35-year-old dropped to six places down to finish the 10km race in 2:11:33s.
His teammate, Ngonidzashe Ncube, failed to qualify for the Olympics after finishing on 37th place.
The 37-year-old, Ncube was unfortunate to clock 2:17:02s, which is not within the Olympic standards qualification time. He was nine minutes more than the set standard qualification time for the Olympics.
Meanwhile, it was the Ugandan, Victor Kiplangat, who emerged as the star of the race as he claimed the gold medal.
Israel’s Maru Teferi claimed the silver, overtaking the tiring Leul Gebresilase on the finishing curve to finish runner up in 2:09:12s.
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Meanwhile, sprinter Tapiwanashe Makarawu failed to advance to the 200m semi-finals after finishing fourth in his heat last week.
The US-based student could not outpace the newly-crowned 100m world champion and 200m defending champion Noah Lyles (20.05), as he only managed a time of 20.64.s.
Makarawu is targeting to qualify for the Paris Games.
“Basically, it wasn’t my expectations and target for that competition, but it is what is. Talking to my coach, studying the speed chart, we discovered that I was not consistent at all with my speed throughout the race,” he said
“So it is something that we are going to work as we target the Paris 2024 Olympics, but in general, I would say, it’s just the beginning, more to come in the future.”
