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Ellina Mhlanga

Senior Sports Reporter

FOR Olympian and now athletics coach, Cuthbert Nyasango, Tapiwanashe Makarawu’s qualification for the forthcoming Summer Games is something he says he had always expected given the sprinter’s “huge’’ potential.

Seven athletes including Makarawu, a former National Sports Academy athlete and Bindura University of Science Education student, will represent Zimbabwe at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The Games will be officially opened on July 26 and run until August 11.

The other members of Team Zimbabwe include Makanakaishe Charamba, Isaac Mpofu, Rutendo Nyahora, Stephen Cox, Denilson Cyprianos and Paige Van der Westhuizen.

Nyasango, a coach at the National Sports Academy worked with Makarawu before he moved to the United States.

“As a coach I am happy. As National Sports Academy we are happy to see him at the Olympics.

“That shows that the approach that we are using in talent identification and nurturing is now producing results and also, we are contributing to what we are supposed to, which is to produce podium performance.

“We are hoping that he will do well at the Olympics,” Nyasango said.

Nyasango said he always believed in Makarawu’s potential and capabilities.

“Looking at the statistics when we started to work with him at the National Sports Academy, he started to be a top sprinter in Zimbabwe. I think for two years he was a top sprinter in Zimbabwe.

“From there he qualified for the Africa Senior Championships, African Games and the World Championships.

“So, his trajectory and improvement were pointing towards qualifying for big events. We were really sure that (he would make it).

“Even if he had not gone to the United States, we were 100 percent sure that these Olympics he would qualify because the potential is just there.”

“I worked with him for I think three years. I think from 2020 to 2022.

“He is down to earth, someone who understands what he wants to do. Someone who believes in himself. I never had a problem with him.

“He was someone I could always count on, and his training, he was someone who was very good, he would respond very well. If he had any challenges he would communicate well. That’s my experience with him,” said Nyasango.

Makarawu will compete in the Men’s 200m. He qualified for the event with a time of 19.93 seconds in April. The qualifying time was 20.16 seconds. He won a silver medal at the African Senior Championships in 200m last month in Cameroon.

“For me I think the time (19.93) is very competitive.

“When you are at the Olympics, sometimes what works is how you execute your race. You can have the slowest time and then you end up winning.

“It’s how you execute the race and how you handle pressure. That’s where experience and exposure comes in because there is nothing more, because qualifying means you have the capacity and the capability of running well, and being there.

“I am looking forward to seeing him doing well, more than what he did at the World Championships last year. That’s my hope as a former coach,” added Nyasango.

As Team Zimbabwe step up their act ahead of the Games in Paris, he said it’s vital for the athletes to believe in themselves.

“For me, I think it’s for them to believe in their coaches, to follow the instructions from their coaches and when you go out there, just believe that you are as equal as them.

“Just believe and don’t doubt yourself.

“Trust the process that you and your coach have gone through, and all the exercise and everything. Just go out there and believe in yourself.

“I think results always come by yourself being also confident and doing what you agreed with the coach.”

Nyasango raised the country’s flag high at the London 2012 Olympics when he finished seventh in the men’s marathon with a time of 2 hours 12 minutes 8 seconds.