7 Zimbabwe athletes qualify to compete in Beijing Olympics

By Tichaona Sibanda
13 December 2007

Seven Zimbabwe athletes have already set the qualifying times to compete at the 29th Olympic games in Beijing China next year.

Joseph Mungwari, President of the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe said the 7 athletes had all attained the ‘A’ standard in competitions sanctioned by the International Association of Athletics Federation.

According to Mungwari, his association will step up its preparations next year by sending a number of athletes to training camps abroad to allow them to acclimatise and hopefully better their times.

‘There is a lot of work to be done. Its fine they have set the qualifying times but there are hundreds more from across the globe that have done the same. The idea now is to prepare them to become Olympic winners,’ the athletics chief said.

Athletes must reach the qualification standards as set by the IAAF for each event from 1 January 2007 until 23 July 2008 for individual events and from 1 January 2007 until 16 July 2008 for relay events in order to be eligible to participate in the athletic events of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The Zimbabwe Olympic Committee must submit the names of all athletes for the Beijing Games by 23 July 2008.

‘Between now and July we hope many others will be able to meet the required qualifying times. But this requires support and funding because as an association we have been seriously affected by the country’s economy,’ Mungwari said.

Since Independence no individual track or field athlete has ever won an Olympic medal but in 2004 Kirsty Coventry became ‘a national treasure’ with her triple-medal-winning performances. Coventry, won gold, silver and bronze medals in swimming events at the Athens Olympic Games.
In 1980, the Zimbabwe women’s hockey team won Olympic gold and apart from Coventry and the Hockey team no other individual or team sport has won any Olympic medal.

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