Ellina Mhlanga Harare Bureau
The trio of Wellington Varevi, Jacob Mugomeri and Tendai Zimuto, who participated in the Athletics South Africa Night Series on Tuesday hoping to attain qualification standards for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil will have to wait a bit longer after failing to meet the times.
The athletes, who took part in the 5,000m event in Cape Town, all posted times outside the qualification standard of 13 minutes 30seconds.
Vareveri came seventh in 14:17:45 while Mugomeri settled for position eight in 14:26:68. Zimuto finished on position nine in 14:28:05.
The series also dubbed as a qualifying event for the Africa Senior championships to be held later this year.
National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe director of coaching, development and talent identification Lisimati Phakamile said they still have a chance to qualify as there are other upcoming qualification events.
“They missed out because we have a guy with 14:17 then 14:26 and so on in the qualifier. They also said the conditions and the altitude slightly affected them. But they remain positive and hopeful that their times will be much better than what they recorded in Cape Town.
“We hope that with two or three competitions before the major competitions the guys can make it. The trio can keep working on their speed and correct where they went wrong,” said Phakamile.
Phakamile said the national association will be sending athletes to Mauritius and South Africa before qualification closes at the end of July.
“We have another event in Mauritius and we will also have another one in South Africa, so we are going back to South Africa for the same series but we will be going for relays.
“We have the 5,000m in Mauritius, so we are sending the guys there. They are also going to participate in combined events. Keegan Cooke will participate and Pardon Ndlovu will compete in the 400m.
Tsitsi Mahachi, who is already at High Performance Centre in Mauritius, will compete in 200m,” said Phakamile.
So far Zimbabwe has four athletes that have attained qualification standards in marathon.
The four are Wirimai Juwawo, Pardon Ndhlovu, Gilbert Mutandiro and Cuthbert Nyasango.