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Geophrey Sifani Sports Reporter
ONLY 10 participants turned up for the three-day Bulawayo Athletics Board (BAB) organised race walk seminar that ended at Northlea High School yesterday. The workshop was targeting coaches and technical officials from Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South, Midlands, Masvingo and Bulawayo.BAB chairman Manuel Mpofu said despite the low turnout, the participants benefitted as they learnt about the basics of race walk and its techniques.

“The number may seem low, but for us that’s a good start. Race walk is a new race after all and we’ve challenged them to share what they have learnt so that more people are drawn to the sport. The main aim of this course was to create awareness of the difference between just walking and race walk and equip them with knowledge to judge the races,” said Mpofu.

He hoped that attendance will be higher next time as knowledge of the new race spreads. “We hope there was a fair attendance in Harare so that we manage to get the race off its feet in most parts of the country. The officials had interludes of practical sessions and this will make it easy for them to demonstrate the correct techniques,” Mpofu said.

The workshop was conducted by the country’s leading race walk competitor Jack Cheneso and National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (NAAZ) vice-president for administration Christine Ncube.

Cheneso will represent Zimbabwe at the African Race Walk Senior Championships to be held in Durban, South Africa, in June. She is also a holder of a Level One race walk coaching certificate.

Race walk was recently introduced in schools and at national events, and differs from running and power walking in that one must be in contact with the ground at all times.

For example, the back foot’s toe can only lift off the ground once the front foot’s heel touches the ground and the knee of the supporting leg must remain straight from the time it hits the ground until it passes under the torso.