Marathon runners camp moved to Bulawayo
FIFTEEN long-distance runners are converging in Bulawayo for a two-week camp as the national association pushes for qualification to the World Athletics Championships.
The camp was initially expected to take place in Vumba but National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe director of coaching, talent identification and development, Lisimati Phakamile, said they have moved the camp due to weather conditions.
The camp is expected to begin today. “We are getting into camp with the marathon team, probably tomorrow in Bulawayo. We moved away from Vumba because of the weather conditions.
“We have a total of 15 athletes that we have brought into camp. And we are open to local athletes who are in Bulawayo, who would want to join camp and also work with the team assisting pace making, running and also benefit from the coaching that team is going to get,” said Phakamile.
The qualification period for marathon opened on November 30, 2020 and ends on May 29, 2022. For 10 000m, 20km race walk, relays and combined events, the window opened on December 27, 2020 and runs until June 26, 2022.
For all the other disciplines, the qualification period started on June 27, 2021 and closes on June 26, 2022.
The likes of Bulawayo-based pair of Isaac Mpofu and Ngonidzashe Ncube, have previously posted promising times and with the necessary support they might reach the qualifying mark.
The qualifying time is 2 hours 11 minutes 30 seconds for men and 2 hours 29 minutes 30 seconds for women.
These were the same standards used for the Olympic Games and after missing out on the Games, Phakamile said they wanted to bring the earmarked athletes together, so that they can push each other.
“Basically the idea behind this camp is to try and help our distance runners to push each other and work together as a team. Remember the distances that they run, they need that pushing, pacing and communication as they run in the marathon.
“So that is basically the idea that we teach them how to run together, how to work together as a pack and also to pace each other so that they help push speed.
“We have had a situation whereby our athletes have missed qualification by a whisker. So we felt that if we can assist these guys to come together, work together, prepare for qualification as a team it can be actually quite better.
“This is not the last camp nor is it the first. We have had camps before and we will continue having camps after this one, so that we monitor the performance of the athletes and we check how they are improving or if there is no improvement up to until when we get them to the qualifying competitions and events,” said Phakamile.
After this camp, they will take a break for a few weeks before they regroup again at a different venue building up to the targeted qualifying races.
Benson Chauke, Cephas Pasipamire and Collen Makaza are in charge of the camp.