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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
BULAWAYO’S White City Stadium will play host to the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic and World Junior Championships qualifiers next weekend during the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (Naaz) Interprovincial Championships.

The competition will be on Saturday and Sunday, with Naaz saying they have extended invitations to their Botswana, South Africa and Zambia counterparts.

White City, and Zimbabwe as a whole are benefitting from the legacy left after hosting the 2014 Africa Union Sports Council Region Five Under-20 Games that saw the facility getting a major facelift.

A tartan track and electronic timers which will be used at the Naaz Interprovincial Championships were laid at White City in 2014.

Naaz president Tendai Tagara encouraged local athletes to register for the competition saying this is a perfect opportunity for them to qualify for the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic and World Junior Championships.

The World Junior Championships are set for July in Kazan, Russia with the Summer Olympics set for Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro from August 5 to 21.

“The Naaz Interprovincial Championships are a qualifying event for Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic and World Junior Championships.

We’ve invited South Africa, Botswana and Zambia to send their athletes so that they may use the race to prepare for either Olympic Games or the World Junior Championships. We’ve been encouraging provinces to send athletes and had requested them to submit names by Friday (yesterday) so that we start entering them in the electronic system we will use. It’s our hope that the people of Zimbabwe, and in particular Bulawayo will come in their numbers and cheer athletes,” said Tagara.

Qualification times for the World Junior Championships track events which will run from July 19-24 are as follows for men; 100m is 10.55 seconds, 200m is 21.35, 400m is 47.70 with those aspiring to compete in 800m expected to complete the race in one minute 49.50 seconds. The qualifying time for 1,500m is three minutes 48.00 seconds.

For women, the times are 11.80 seconds for 100m, 24.20 seconds for 200m, two minutes 09.20 seconds for 800m and four minutes 28.20 seconds for 1,500m.

Only athletes aged 16, 17, 18 or 19 on 31 December 2016, born in 1997, 1998, 1999 or 2000 may compete at the World junior Championships.

Women’s entry standards for the Olympics are 11.32 seconds for 100m, 23.20 seconds for 200m, 52.00seconds for 400m and two minutes 01.00 seconds for 800m.

The men’s qualification times are, 10.16 seconds for 100m, 20.50 seconds for 200m, 45.40 seconds for 400m and one minute 45.80 seconds for 800m.