Zimbabwe: Makaza Calls for Camps to Prepare Athletes

By Ellina Mhlanga

COACH Collen Makaza says there is need to have camps to assist athletes seeking qualification to the World Athletics Championships to be held next year.

The championships will be held in the United States from July 15 to 24.

Makaza made the remarks following the participation of a number of local distance runners at the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon on Sunday.

The race presented those seeking qualification to the World Championships with a chance to qualify with men chasing a time of 2 hours 11 minutes 30 seconds and for women its 2 hours 29 minutes 30 seconds.

The best performance came from Isaac Mpofu, who came seventh in 2 hours 11 minutes 41 seconds and Ngonidzashe Ncube finished on position 10 in 2 hours 12 minutes 49 seconds.

Makaza said with such times, there is hope for some of the athletes but there is need to assist athletes.

"The Championships are in July and if we calculate our time, it's already late, so we have to have another race between January and February for early qualifiers.

"For the late qualifiers it will be around April, May there. So this is very tricky now, we have to play our cards very well and there is need for supervision to assist these athletes to qualify.

"We need some camps and try to go to Vumba or Nyanga for training.

"If we don't do that I don't see our athletes qualifying for 2022 World Championships," said Makaza.

This article originally appeared on The Herald

Photo: The Herald