BY Elizabeth NDHLOVU-DUMBRENI
Harare-based athlete Blessmore Chidziva aims at improving his times following his latest success where he won a gold medal, prize money and floating trophy at the Coca Cola 4-Minute Mile track race sponsored by Delta Beverages at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) in Bulawayo.
At least 20 athletes from various provinces across Zimbabwe participated in the race on April 28 and Chidziva completed the race in a record time of 4 minutes 13 seconds, beating 19 other runners.
Chidziva, who has been participating in the ZITF race every year since 2010, wants to work harder to excel in his career.
“This gold medal is a catalyst for pushing me to greater heights. I am determined to work hard and my aim is to improve on my run times, especially for shorter distances,” he said.
Last year, Chidziva won gold at the Westgate 10km race. He also participated in the 1 500m National Youth Games finals in 2008. Apart from that, he was the only Zimbabwean national to be chosen to participate in the 1 500m finals at a race in Valencia, Spain in 2008, while he was still in high school at Seke 3 High in Chitungwiza.
In 2015, he brought home a silver medal after coming third in a Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Co-operation Organisation (SARPCCO) 1 500m race in eSwatini. He brought another silver medal from the 10km Polokwane road race in October 2017, where he outran over two thousand other runners from various countries across the globe. There were only two Zimbabweans in the race- Chidziva and Nomore Wiriki.
At the FNB sponsored race, ran in Durban in October last year, he was on position 16 out of over 3 000 athletes drawn from various parts of the world. He was also one of the three Zimbabwean athletes who ran the 800m final SARPCCO race in Windhoek, Namibia.
