National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (NAAZ) president Tendayi Tagara is impressed by the number of athletes that have so far qualified for upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics scheduled for July 26 to August 11.
Marathon runners Isaac Mpofu and Rutendo Nyahora as well as sprinters Tapiwa Makarawu and Makanakaishe Charamba have so far booked their slots for the global meet.
Charamba is the latest addition to the list, after qualifying for the 200m event in a time of 20.00s. He joins Makarawu who had already qualified for the same event in a time of 19.87s.
Mpofu was the first to qualify for the Olympics in December 2022 at the Valencia Marathon, crossing the finishing line in a time of 2 hours 6 minutes 48 seconds whilst Nyahora earned her spot through a universality wild card.
Tagara noted that the positive move comparing with the previous edition where triple jumper Chengetayi Mapaya was the only one who met the qualifying standards for the Olympics from athletics.
Considering that the fact that the door is still open for other athletes leaves a possibility of increasing the number.
"We are very happy that we have been one of the two associations out of 33 Olympic sport codes that have athletes who have qualified and met the standards of the Olympics. If one looks at what we had in the last edition, we had only one athlete who met the qualifying standards, Chengetayi Mapaya, but unfortunately he could not travel," said Tagara.
"We had targeted to have at least two or three marathon runners and also track athletes but now that we have both, we have fulfilled our mandate and hope to have more. There is quite a number of athletes that are close to qualifying who are based abroad. This gives us hope that we are doing well and if you look at Tapiwa Makarawu for example, his times are very impressive and if he mantains that standard, he can be in the semis or finals at the Olympics."
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Tagara added that the athletes are already preparing for the Paris Games.
Mpofu has been in camp since January and took a break after the Boston marathon last month before resuming his camp on Monday under the guidance of his coach Benson Chauke.
South Africa based, Nyahora, who is the only female that has qualified so far, will be working with her coach in South Africa and Tagara said that they will see if she can join Mpofu in the final weeks so that they can work and travel together.
In order to help other athletes qualify, Tagara said they will send some athletes for the upcoming Africa Senior Championships that will be held in Cameroon in June.
