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HENRY Tabarie of US Virgin Islands is the man in charge of the Zimbabwe sprinters at the Paris Olympics.

The two-time Olympian is Tapiwanashe Makarawu’s coach in the US. He was entrusted with taking charge of Makanakaishe Charamba as well by the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe. This was done so that from the end of the collegiate finals in May, athletes do not lose ground.

Many university athletes from Third World countries do not live up to it at the Olympics because of failure to manage the two months between the college finals and Olympics.

In June while at the African Senior Championships in Doula in Cameroon, NAAZ director of coaching Pakamile Lisimati, said this year they were hoping for better as the American coach would set camp in Germany with the boys before moving to France.

Tabarie is a two-time Assistant Coach of the Year and at his peak he had a 20.71 seconds 200m and 44.77 seconds in the 400m.

Charamba and Makarawu qualified for the Olympics’ semi-finals after finishing second in their respective heats.

Both athletes went into the Olympics ranked in the top 15 of the 200m.

Makarawu is 10th with his 19.93 seconds and Charamba 13th with 19.95.

Reaching the final is a possibility for both but they need to dig deeper in the semi-finals and follow Brian Dzingai’s great of 2008.

Dzingai reached the 200m final and finished fourth.