‘Develop world-class athletes to perform at major competitions’
SEASONED sports administrator Robert Mutsauki believes a deliberate approach towards developing world-class athletes is what the country needs to change its fortunes for the better at major competitions.
Several athletes are currently pursuing qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games to take place from July 26 to August 11.
Speaking on the sidelines of the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe Awards held last Friday in Harare, Mutsauki said there is a need to be intentional in nurturing identified talent to become world-class athletes.
Mutsauki believes, this will make a difference when it comes to qualification and chances for podium performance at competitions such as the Olympic Games.
“The talent is always there. We can’t say there is a decline in talent no, but talent you have to identify it and nurture it, and that’s where the challenge is.
“How are we converting the potential that these talented athletes have to actual performance on the world stage one of the things I think, is that we need to have more world-class athletes. I think that’s what it goes down to.
“Even if we talk about qualifying for the Olympics, those who have a lot of world-class athletes among their ranks don’t have so much challenge in terms of qualifying for the Olympics. That’s why they are even able to do trials before the Olympic Games.
“So it’s a question of saying but how do we select, what is a fair way of selecting.
But in our case sometimes we have only one and therefore trials don’t make any sense.
“But we need really to build, we need depth so that if we just aim at developing world-class athletes, the medals will take care of themselves in due course. It’s only world-class athletes who fight for medals. So this issue is we seem to be struggling with just qualifying.”
Two Zimbabwean athletes, marathon runner Isaac Mpofu and rower Stephen Cox, have so far qualified for the Games.
With the deadlines for the qualification window, for the various sport codes drawing closer, it is not certain if Zimbabwe will be able to improve their numbers for the coming edition of the Olympic Games.
Zimbabwe had five athletes at the previous Games competing in athletics, golf, rowing, and swimming.
Rowing and golf qualified while swimming received two universality entries and athletics got one from their international federations respectively.
The Zimbabwe Olympic Committee is hoping for an improved number of athletes representing the country at the forthcoming Games.
“If you look at Isaac Mpofu, that’s the quality of qualification we are talking about, not just scrapping through, he didn’t struggle to qualify.
“And when you have a person like that he is a good prospect if you do everything you need to do to support him because he still needs to be supported between now and the Games.
“There is still a lot that needs to happen for him to not only maintain his form but to even improve on that and then challenge for a medal.
“If we had, say eight to 10 athletes in that category, then our prospects would be good even for medals.
It takes time but it’s the whole process.” Mutsauki noted that with the progressive raising of qualification standards by international federations and other countries raising their game, Zimbabwe also needs to step up.
“We used to have an average of about 12 to 13 individuals qualifying in the past. But the point is standards of qualifying have improved and have been raised. Why? Because they need to control the number of athletes going to the Olympics.
“The other thing is other countries have upped their game . . . We have been overtaken by several countries and so on. So these things, I think what it tells you is that things don’t happen on their own, it’s an actual programme that you have in place, that you consciously implement, and that will get you the results in due course.
“But it’s a long-term sort of process, not just overnight,” said Mutsauki.