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Ngoni Makusha

Harare Bureau
TRACK and field star Ngonidzashe Makusha is out of the race for a medal in this year’s World Championships as he failed to meet the qualifying standard when he leaped 7.97m on Saturday at an event held in Brussels, Belgium.The championships will run from 10-18 August in Moscow, Russia.

Makusha who missed last year’s Olympic Games due to an injury has been pushing to qualify for long jump but found the going tough when he missed the qualifying standard that has been set at 8.15m and 8.10m for the A and B standard respectively.

The National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe had delayed submitting their final team hoping that Makusha a bronze medalist in the previous World Championships held in Daegu, South Korea would make it but he failed leaving sprinter Gabriel Mvumvure and long-distance runner, Cephas Pasipamire as the two representatives for the country in this year’s competition.

United States-based Mvumvure booked his place in the 100m event when he ran 9.98s at an outdoor season competition in the US while Pasipamire stopped the clock in 2hours 16minutes 15seconds during the Pyong-Yang Marathon in March this year.

Other athletes that had qualified for the World Championships are long-distance runners Wirimai Juwawo and Cuthbert Nyasango but they will not be competing in Moscow with Juwawo nursing an injury and Nyasango indicated that he is not fit enough to participate.

Meanwhile the Harare Athletics Board held a competition for middle distance runners on Saturday  hoping they can get qualifying times for the World Championships but they failed with some of the hopefuls such as Jonathan Chinyoka and Elijah Mabhunu failing to turn up for the 10km event.