IAAF course for Bulawayo
THE National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe is set to continue with their developmental programmes when they host an International Association of Athletics Federations Level Two coaching course for sprints and hurdles in December.
The upcoming course to take place from December 8 to 15 in Bulawayo will be conducted by an IAAF expert, Rüdiger Harksen from Germany.
NAAZ president Tendai Tagara said they were granted the green light to hold the course after successfully staging the Level Two coaching course in jumps in September.
“This comes after successfully hosting a jumps course in September. IAAF was happy with the conduct of our last course that’s why they are granting us another course. We are to train only 15 coaches according to IAAF standards.
“They have seconded another expert who will be coming from Germany. All our lecturers are IAAF appointed. We have already asked provinces to second coaches. The course will start on the 8th to 15 December, 2018,” said Tagara.
Earlier on, from November 29 to December 3, the national association will hold the Technical Officials Education and Certification Sys- tem (TOECS) course. They will also have the IAAF Level One course from December 1 to 12 in Bulawayo.
NAAZ director of coaching, talent identification and development, Lisimati Phakamile said the courses are necessary for their efforts to turn around their fortunes in track and field events where the country has been struggling to have athletes qualifying for major meets.
Zimbabwe last year fielded only long-distance runners at the IAAF World Championships after track and field athletes failed to make the cut.
“The coaching department seeks to be able to produce home grown talent in the coming years and begin to produce world championship athletes locally.
“The Level One course will see coaches who have not yet attained the international standard go through their paces in the run jump throw programme while the Level Two coaches will be specialising in the sprint and hurdles coaching.
“This coaching programme is now scientifically based and seeks to help coaches link science and their coaching as it is the best and most effective way of coaching. With the theme - athlete centred, science based and coach driven - the athletics coaching department has seen it as the way out of poor performance,” said Phakamile.