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Midlands Correspondent
THE National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (NAAZ) will hold a three-day seminar in Harare and Bulawayo at the end of January to prepare officials for the 2016 athletics competitions.

The Bulawayo seminar will be held at Northlea High School while the Harare event will be at Prince Edward High School from January 29-31.

NAAZ secretary-general Cynthia Phiri said: “The NAAZ is inviting athletics coaches and technical officials to attend a national course on race walking, which is a recently introduced event in our schools and national athletics events. This will help prepare NAPH, NASH, trust schools, clubs, uniformed forces and college teams for forthcoming international competitions. The fee is $100 per person and this covers meals, accommodation and administration.”

Phiri said NAAZ wanted to decentralise the coaching course to each province, but due “to limited time that the internationally qualified instructors have, we’re only going to have two venues for coaches to absorb the new skills”.

Race walking events to be held this year include the Run/Walk for Life Zimbabwe, which will be part of the Victoria Falls Marathon and Half Marathon, and the World Walk Race Championships to be held in Russia in May.

Meanwhile, NAAZ have also released their calendar of events for 2016, which kick starts this Saturday with the National Season Opener Cross Country for juniors to be held in Harare.

The provincial cross country championships have been set for Harare on January 24, while the NAAZ track and field championships will be at White City Stadium in Bulawayo on February 14.

The Boterekwa Half Marathon, Westgate Half Marathon, Simon Muzenda Half Marathon and the Choppies 10KM run are some of the highlights of the 2016 local athletics calendar.