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Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
ATHLETICS administrator Manuel Mpofu is over the moon after his White City Stars Athletics Club project finally took off the ground at the weekend.

The club held its first event since inception in 2019 at White City Stadium on Saturday.

The academy has largely been inactive due to stringent Covid-19 lockdown measures from last year until they were eased last month.

More than 100 athletes took to the track in the event and Mpofu was impressed by the turnout.

“We had athletes from Slack Athletics Club Harare, Mosi Striders-Vic Falls, Detema Strides, Plumtree High, Ihlosi Athletics Club, Gloag High School and other local clubs. Generally, I am happy with the performance of the athletes.

With more competitions our athletes will perform well,” said Mpofu.

He said the weekend competition showed that athletes and their coaches are working very hard to improve their performances. In athletics we say Train, Compete and Repeat. Athletes should continuously repeat the cycle to improve their performances,” said Mpofu.

Tapiwa Gushure won the 100m in a time of 10,78 seconds, beating race favourite Ronald Muchichwa, who crossed the line in 11,16 seconds to finish second.

Semukele Ngwenya took the women’s 100m dash in 13,01 seconds, with Amanda Msongelwa coming second in 13,31 seconds.

Thabo Mapfumo won the men’s one mile race in 5 minutes 20,02 seconds and Amanda Netha did the business in the women’s event, crossing the line in 7 minutes 46,77 seconds.

The competition was sponsored by Zimbabwe triple jump record holder Ndabazihle Mdhlongwa and Arnold Payne’s Africa Children’s Hope Foundation.

Mobile network operator Econet chipped in with T-shirts, sim cards and key holders. — @innocentskizoe