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Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
THE National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (Naaz) says Team Zimbabwe performed well at the just ended African Senior Athletics Championships held at the Cote d’Or National Sports Complex in Saint Pierre, Mauritius.

Zimbabwe sent 10 athletes to the championships and only managed to pick up a bronze medal in the 4×100m men’s relay.

Artwell Simon

The Zimbabwean team clocked 39.81 seconds to come third behind silver medalists South Africa and winners Kenya.

The team was made up of Ngoni Makusha, Dickson Kamugeremi, Tapiwa Makarawu and Denzel Siamualela.
Naaz director of coaching Lisimati Phakamile said the weather in Mauritius did not make life easy for Zimbabwe.

“The team generally fared well considering that we picked up a medal after a long time. Also putting into consideration that we had a number of athletes going into the semi-finals and finals, which was quite impressive.

Ngoni Makusha

We had Ngoni Makusha getting into the semi-final of the 200m and 100m. We also had Tapiwa Makarawu in the final of the 200m as a first-time athlete in a time of 20.08 seconds, which is good.

“The weather was very difficult for athletes to perform. It was raining, the track was wet and it was windy. It was too windy, but the athletes performed well despite the weather challenge. It was a great deal of experience for the athletes. All in all, l would say it was a good performance from the team,” said Phakamile.

Kamungeremu posted a time of 10.48 seconds in heat four of the 100m to finish third, but his time was not good enough to see him through to the semis.

It was the same story for Panashe Nhenga, who came seventh in 10.79 seconds. In the women’s 100m event, Michelle Zuze was fourth in 12.10 seconds to miss the semi-finals.

Garren Muwishi

Garren Muwishi and Artwell Simon were up for the men’s 400m event. Muwishi did not finish the race due to injury and Simon came fifth in 48.36 seconds.

Ashely Miller was fifth in the 100m hurdles final, while United States-based long jumper Kudakwashe Chadenga finished sixth. – @innocentskizoe