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Lungelo Ndhlovu
VISUALLY impaired athlete, Faustina Madziva, propelled Zimbabwe to pole position in athletics, after bagging gold in the 1,500m T13 Women Final at the on-going Africa Union Sports Council Region 5 Under-20 Youth Games held at White City Stadium yesterday.

Madziva snatched gold in a tightly contested race on the fourth day of the competition, to win gold in 5.28.89 seconds, just ahead of Malawi’s Taonere Banda who was 17 seconds behind.

According to Zimbabwe’s team manager, Reward Zvinavashe, the 1,500 T13 is a race category where an athlete has six out of sixty degrees of visual impairment and the athlete can use the full ground without being guided.

“For the visually impaired, we’ve about three categories of visual impairment and these categories start from T11, T12, T13 and they’re determined by the anthologists,” said Zvinavashe.

In the 200m T11 Final Fidelis Mhone did not disappoint after holding on to the steady paced Angolan Chamoleia Jose, who finished the competition in 24.80 seconds.

Mhone finished the competition in 26.31 seconds to snatch a silver medal for the nation.

“I’m very delighted at the same time impressed by the performance of my athletes today. It shows that we’ve improved as a team and we’re also using this exposure to prepare for the All Africa Games next year.

“Having a competitor like Faustina means we won’t disappoint our country in other competitions in the future. I’m hoping we’ll bring gold in these competitions,” said Zvinavashe.

Day Four results

1,500m T13 Women Final

Gold: Faustina Madziva (Zim, 5min, and 28,89sec), Silver: Taonere Banda (Maw, 5min, and 45,71sec), Bronze: Prisca Kachule (Maw, 5min and 55,17 sec)

200mT13 Women Final

Gold: Luciano Gaveno Edmilsa (Moz, 26.64sec), Silver: Makanda Hambeleleni (Nam, 29.23 sec), Bronze: Shoko Libetra (Zim, 29.80sec).

200m T11Men Final

Gold: Chamoleia Jose (Ang, 24.80sec),

Silver: Fidelis Mhone (Zim, 26.31 sec),

Bronze: Simao Fernando (Angola, 26.68sec).