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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter

NATIONAL Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (Naaz) president Tendai Tagara has been reelected to the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) council.

The seasoned administrator will hold the continent’s technical and development portfolio for athletics and will be in charge of coaches and officials’ capacity development as well as competitions.

Tagara defeated Namibia’s Erwin Naimwaka by 24 votes to 16 at a meeting held on Saturday in Durban, South Africa. 

An elated Tagara, who will hold the continental post for four years dedicated his reappointment to Naaz, adding that getting the CAA position is a vote of confidence for Zimbabwean athletics.

“People can see our results in providing coaches and officials of high quality to Africa. We are one of the few countries in Africa who had outstanding athletes at Oregon. I will work for the development of the sport of athletics in Zimbabwe and in Africa, so that Africa continues to be competitive globally,” said Tagara.

Zimbabwe sent three athletes to the 2022 World Athletics Championships that were held in Oregon, United States of America.

The three male athletes who represented Zimbabwe were Isaac Mpofu who participated in the marathon race, triple jumper Chengetayi Mapaya and sprinter Tinotenda Matiyenga.

Mpofu put up a stellar performance to finish in the top 10 of the men’s marathon and in the process shattered Zimbabwe’s eight-year record. Mpofu ran a time of 2 hours 7 minutes 57 seconds at the World Championships to beat the previous national record that stood at 2 hours 9 minutes 52 seconds, set by Cuthbert Nyasango in 2014.

Not only did Mpofu set a new national record, he also qualified for the Budapest competition whose qualifying time is 2 hours 9 minutes.

Mapaya went for the championships ranked sixth in the world after posting a 17.26m jump at the NCCA Nationals held a fortnight before the start of the World Championships.

The Zimbabwean jumper had set his personal best at the World Championships venue, with Naaz hoping that he carries his form.

In Oregon, Mapaya fouled twice in his qualification round and with pressure, anxiety taking toll, the country’s medal hopeful collapsed and failed to progress to the next stage of the competition.

National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe

Matiyenga was a newcomer at the world stage, his first assignment and first competition as a senior for the country. He last participated at the Africa Junior Championships in 2018 where he got a gold medal.

The World Championships were a very big stage for him coming up in a preliminary heat with some of the world’s fastest athletes and unfortunately he didn’t manage to pull
through as he finished sixth in a time of 20.72 seconds.

Tagara said Zimbabwe has done stellar work in development of coaches and officials, with their training programmes attracting participants from as far as Kenya.

Tagara, who also sits in the World Athletics development commission CAA will reconvene and redistribute responsibilities to members of the council at a meeting scheduled for April. — @ZililoR