The Pan African games were last held in Algiers in 2007. Zimwara who plies his trade at ZISCO Steel, was first picked for national duty in 2006 by the National Association of Athletics of Zimbabwe as a junior and was promoted into the mens senior team two years later.
He has proved a rising force to reckon with at international competitions. In his debut year he inspired Zimbabwe to clinch silverware in Addis Ababa Ethiopia in a 4 by 100m relay race. As part of his preparations for this year’s All Africa Games Zimwara has participated in two gruelling local competitions held in Harare and Zvishavane.
“I lifted this year’s Errimaple Athletics senior men’s 100m race title in Zvishavane early this month and last month I had also made it in Harare,” Zimwara said, referring to the Harare Athletics Board Track and Field competition held at the University of Zimbabwe grounds where he completed 100m sprint race in 10.3 seconds to claim the championship title.
Zimwara added that the biggest challenge facing athletes in Zimbabwe was the absence of modern basic athletics gadgets like electronic timers. These are essentially quarts clocks with special electronics, and can achieve higher precision than stop watches used in Zimbabwe.
“If we could have electronic timers then we could be a step up and meet international standards because at the moment the ones we are using are not of World standard – so whatever time you finish at, no one across the globe recognizes that,” Zimwara said. Lack of sponsorship and funding for athletics saw Zimbabwe having serious problems and often failing to take part in international competitions.
Post published in: Zimbabwe Sports News