Zimbabwe athletes miss Olympics Qualification Isaac Mpofu, Munyaradzi jari, Fortunate Chidzivo, Ngonidzashe Ncube with Ambassador Carlo Perrotta (centre)

Harare Bureau
ZIMBABWE’S long distance runners will have to wait for another opportunity to try and qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games after they missed qualification yesterday in Siena, Italy.

The quartet of Munyaradzi Jari, Ngonidzashe Ncube, Isaac Mpofu and Fortunate Chidzivo were among athletes that competed in the Xiamen Marathon and Tuscany Camp Global Elite Race, in Siena yesterday.

However, they could not make the qualifying times for the Games that has been set at 2 hours 11 minutes 30 seconds for men’s marathon.
For women the time is 2 hours 29 minutes 30 seconds.

Ncube missed qualification by less than a minute when he clocked 2 hours 12 minutes 25 seconds to finish on position 33.
His training partner Mpofu posted a time of 2 hours 13 minutes 31 seconds to settle for position 36.

Jari was number 46 in 2 hours 17 minutes 44 seconds.

The three athletes had personal best times of 2 hours 14 minutes going into the qualifying race.

Although the pair of Ncube and Mpofu managed to improve their times, it was not good enough to earn them a spot at the Games to take place from July 23 to August 8.

After a good show at the World Half marathon, there was high hope for Chidzivo in the women’s section but she found the going tough yesterday and could not finish the race.

Kenya’s Eric Kiptanui was the first to cross the finish line in 2 hours 5 minutes 47 seconds in the men’s category. Abdifufa Nigassa of Ethiopia was second in 2 hours 5 minutes 57 seconds, followed by Morocco’s Othmane Elgoumri with a time of 2 hours 6 minutes 18 seconds.

The women’s race was won by Kenya’s Angela Tanui in 2 hours 20 minutes 8 seconds.

Another Kenyan Purityjebicii Changwony was second in 2 hours 22 minutes 46 seconds and on third place was Ethiopia’s Gebiyaneshayele Gedamu with a time of 2 hours 23 minutes 23 seconds.

Jari was left a disappointed man after yesterday’s performance.

“I am disappointed. I was looking forward to qualify. I believe I could have done better and even qualified but I don’t know what happened to my body. I failed to respond to the weather, it was too cold.

“The race was tough and I didn’t do well,” said Jari.

One of the coaches that has been helping the athletes with their preparations, Collen Makaza said they are going back to training for another race scheduled for South Africa next month.

“It’s unfortunate they did not qualify. But their times, particularly for Ngonidzashe and Isaac are not bad. It showed that we worked as athletes and coaches. We tried our best with the limited resources we had.

“The times are not bad, we need to work more on speed. I think the next race is in South Africa in May in Port Elizabeth. It is also a qualifying race for the Olympics.

“For Munya I think his speed in the first 21km was too fast and it affected him.

“I think that’s our last chance, so we need to go back to training as soon as possible. It’s hard to qualify in Africa, this was our best opportunity,” said Makaza.

The closing date for marathon qualification is May 31.

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