THE Zimbabwe Athletics team will leave the country today for the World Athletics Championships which rolled into action in Budapest, Hungary on Saturday.
Going into this showpiece, Zimbabwe is fielding just four athletes — three marathon runners: Isaac Mpofu, Fortunate Chidzivo and Ngonidzashe Ncube together with United-States based sprinter Tapiwa Makarawu who will compete in the 200m race.
Makarawu arrived in Hungary on Saturday and he will be in action for his first race tomorrow, while the three marathon runners will compete at the weekend.
Team coach Benson Chauke said they have had ample time to work together as a team and hopes that what they have done will carry them through this competition.
“Preparations have gone well and the morale among the athletes is okay. Of course there is anxiety since its a global competition but we have tried not to put our athletes under pressure. As we are set to leave the country tomorrow (today), we will have time to acclimatise with the environment since our races will take place over the weekend. We have put focus on representing the country and perform according to our ability,” said Chauke.
“Having a podium finish is everyone's wish going to any competition and we hope that our athletes will be able to also set their personal best times. We just hope that our athletes will post good results that will enable them to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics.”
The marathon trio have competed on global stage before and are banking on that experience at this event. Chidzivo participated at the 2017 World Championships in London, while Ncube and Mpofu took part in the 2019 meet in Qatar before the latter was also part of last year's edition in Oregon, United States.
The team had been in camp since July 1 in preparation for the championships.
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