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Makusha looks to the future

Sport
ZIMBABWEAN sprinter Ngoni Makusha is shifting focus to future events after his experience at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

BY MAGRETH RUZVIDZO

ZIMBABWEAN sprinter Ngoni Makusha is shifting focus to future events after his experience at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Makusha failed to make it to the semi-finals after he finished seventh in the first round of the 100-metre heat in a time of 10.43.

He had done well to progress to the first round after he won his heat in the preliminary round.

In an interview with NewsDay Sport, Makusha said although he did not qualify to the semi-finals, which was his main goal,  the experience he got from the Olympics could be a stepping stone for his career.

“It was a wonderful experience and I feel good about everything, just having a chance to be here and competing with the best,” he said. “It’s an amazing experience. I have managed to pick a few things from the experience from the athletes here on how they do their stuff.

“Of course, it was wonderful to get the win at the preliminaries and it’s unfortunate that I couldn’t go straight to the finals, but it was a wonderful experience and I enjoyed every bit of it.”

“Now I am just going to rest a bit, it has been a long season and from there I will plan the future with my team. There are the World Championships and the 2024 Olympics in Paris,” Makusha added.

The sprinter’s coach David Tinago also commended Makusha’s performance, noting that this will help them as a team to fill the gaps they managed to identify at the Olympics .

“We did well in both races and we managed to attain our goal which was to take each race one bit at a time and to progress to the next round. And based on the experience he has gained here, I guess he will use it to his own advantage and build enough towards Paris 2024 Olympics,”  Tinago said.

“What I feel needs to be done from here is to have a strategic plan to build enough towards these championships, to plan things through and also to just  bring in the scientific part of sport to our training sessions and to his day-to-day activities,” Tinago said, adding that he was willing to implement some of the skills he managed to pick as a coach.

“The experience that I got here as a coach I will use it to our own advantage as I was able to go through some training sessions with well-known coaches here,” he said.

Makusha became the fourth Zimbabwean athlete to exit the Tokyo Olympics after the swimming duo of Donata Katai and Peter Wetzlar as well as rower Peter Purcell-Gilpin.

Golfer Scott Vincent on Sunday  finished in 16th position out of 60 golfers.

Follow Magreth on Twitter @MagrethRuzvidzo