Zimbabwe To Send Small Olympics Team

This was revealed by the Chief Executive Officer of the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee (ZOC), Anna Mguni, who said only those with potential, would go to the international games.

So far, ZOC had picked five athletes including swimmer Kirsty Coventry who won seven medals at the past two Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 and in Beijing in 2008.

The others include long jumper Ngoni Makusha who missed out of a medal by just a centimetre at the last Olympic Games. Rowers Michelle Thorncroft and Jennier MacKenzie as well as marathon runner Cuthbert Nyasango, had also qualified for the London Games.

Mguni said ZOC had given the remaining athletes up to the end of May to qualify for the games or risk not being selected.

Sprinters Gabriel Mvumvure and Brian Dzingayi as well as female middle distance runner Sharon Tawengwa and a few others were told to improve their times if they were to make it into the Olympic team.

In addition, ZOC was waiting to finalise its team once it knows the fate of the associations that had applied for wildcard entry to the games. Tennis Zimbabwe had applied for Takanyi Garan’anga to be accorded a wildcard entry by the International Tennis Federation.

Top triathlete Chris Felgate was reported to have left for China on Tuesday to participate in a number of international competitions to garner enough points to enable him to qualify for the Olympics.

Zimbabwe boasts of eight medals at past Olympic Games, seven of them by Coventry while the other, gold, was won by the women’s hockey team at the 1980 Games in Moscow.