daniel chigunwe
Ellina Mhlanga
Zimpapers Sports Hub
AS the year heads towards an end, the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee chief executive Marlene Gadzirayi reflected on their activities for 2024 as she also gave an insight on some of their future plans.
In an interview with Zimpapers Television Network (ZTN Prime’s) Morning Rush recently, Gadzirayi, said the Paris 2024 Games was a good outing.
Being an Olympic year, the Games remain the major highlight for the year.
Other highlights include the hosting of the Athletes Forum for Zone VI by ZOC in Victoria Falls.
“I think before we get to the Paris Olympics, I would just want to highlight that we hosted the Athletes Forum for Zone VI, which is for the 10 countries in Southern Africa.
“This was the first in Africa and we hosted it in Victoria Falls where we had a number of various countries’ athletes’ commissions. So, these are basically the athletes’ representatives talking a lot about what they feel and how they are looking at sport and administration.”
The Forum will become an annual event to be hosted on a rotational basis with Zone VI.
Zimbabwe had a seven-member team at the Olympics, made up of marathon runners Isaac Mpofu and Rutendo Nyahora, sprinters Makanakaishe Charamba and Tapiwanashe Makarawu, swimmers Paige Van der Westhuizen and Denilson Cyprianos, and rower Stephen Cox.
Mpofu, Charamba, Cyprianos, Van der Westhuizen, Makarawu, and Cox were making their debut at the Games.
The best performance was from the sprinters, who reached the men’s 200m final, and Mpofu, who finished 19th in the marathon.
As they look into the future, ZOC are looking at the Youth Olympic Games in 2026 and the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
Gadzirayi is confident they can build on the performances from Paris.
“Of course, we did not get medals, but I believe that it’s something that we definitely are then building on just to start preparing both for the Youth Olympics in 2026 and then Los Angeles 2028,” said Gadzirayi.
As they are already working towards 2028, some of the athletes from the previous Games have indicated their interest in being part of the next edition.
“First of all, it’s the initial seven athletes that we had in Paris. We had conversations with them just to find out if they would want to work towards LA 2028.
“Some of them actually said, ‘We want to do this. So, what we are doing is we are looking at their progress and doing our best to support them. Of note is Makarawu.
“He actually broke another record in Kentucky two days ago. So, they are not coming home for Christmas. They are already in training,” Gadzirayi said.
Makarawu, who just got his indoor season underway, set a new national record for men’s 300m when posting a time of 32.72 seconds. The previous national record was 33.14 seconds, set by Kundai Maguranyanga in 2021.
“And what we are doing is just hearing from them what exactly their needs are, their coaching needs are.
“And we have also then started collaborating with Brian Dzingai, who is out in the USA.
“He is also doing a lot of scouting for us through the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe because we have also then decided to look and zone in on a number of sporting disciplines that we are good at.
“And those that are consistently qualifying for the Olympics in athletics are some of them. So, it’s just making sure that we have these names on our radar.
“And then working with the federations as well. We have swimmers as well that are coming up because also before LA 2028, we were also looking at the Youth Olympics in 2026, which also becomes a stepping stone to the Olympics in LA 2028.”
Apart from individual sport codes, they are also looking at team sports, and with cricket included for the 2028 Games, it is another area of interest.
