NAAZ push for more athletes to qualify

FOLLOWING the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe’s Inter-provincial finals in Bulawayo over the weekend, a number of athletes have been picked to try and qualify for the forthcoming international events at a meet in Botswana.

The national competition attracted athletes from all provinces and was also a qualifying competition for the IAAF World Under-20 championships in July and the Africa Senior championships in August.

There is also the African Youth Games in July, which are serving as the qualifier for the Youth Olympic Games scheduled for October.

However, some of the targeted athletes missed out on qualification times and NAAZ president, Tendai Tagara, said they have decided to send them for the Botswana national championships on May 26 and 27.

“It’s all part of our efforts to push to qualify for those events. So it’s a mix of youths, juniors and seniors. We are trying to have more athletes push for times from those that were selected,” said Tagara. The national association have indicated that for the senior championships they are also going to include World Under-20 championships-bound Simbarashe Maketa (200m) and Tinotenda Matiyenga (100m).

The two have already qualified for the championships to be staged in Finland from July 10 to 15.