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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter

THE National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (Naaz) is confident that the country’s  100m champion Ngoni Makusha has the ability to go beyond the first round at the Tokyo Olympics.

The 26-year-old Makusha, who qualified for the Olympics via the universality ticket, takes to the track for the 100m preliminary round, which features athletes who didn’t get direct qualification to the Games on Saturday morning.

Makusha’s race is set for 04.35 (CAT).

On his debut Olympics, Makusha set a realistic target, improving his personal best time. His personal best in 100m is 10,17 seconds.

Lisimati Phakamile, Naaz director for coaching, talent identification and development said they’ve advised Makusha to give it all to his heat.

“Preliminary round is given to those who didn’t get automatic qualification so that they screen each other before facing top athletes who got direct qualification. This means that should Makusha sail through, he’ll have run more races.

“He (Makusha) wants a good time and has a chance of progressing to round one and even the semifinals. The only advice we’ve given him is to run every race like a final,” said Phakamile.

In his heat, Makusha has the best personal best, as well as the season’s best which stands at 10.26 seconds.

Other athletes making Makusha’s heat are Maldives’ Hassan Saaid (PB, 10.33), Nathan Crumpton of American Samoa whose times have not been registered on the Olympics website, Shaun Gill of Belize with a personal best of 10.57 seconds, Afghanistan’s Sha Mahmood Noor Zahi, Lataisi Mwea of Kiribati (PB /SB 11.21), Yeykell Romero from Nicaragua (PB/SB 10.50), Togo’s Fabrice Dabla (PB/SB 10.36) and Pen Sokong of Cambodia with a personal best of 10.87 seconds.

According to qualification rules, the first three athletes in each heat as well as the next fastest will make it to round 1.

@ZililoR