By Kudakwashe Kutinyo
BULAWAYO based sprinter Tapiwa Gushure has made it clear that this 2024 season he will be targeting races outside the country for exposure and improved electronic times.
The sprinter who has a personal best of 10.78 seconds has been applying double effort by training hard to improve his times under the supervision of coach Angus Goliath whom he joined in 2021.
Speaking in an interview Tapiwa Gushure highlighted his goals for this year and also confirmed that he has also secured assistance to fulfill his target of competing outside the country.
"I will surely miss the all Africa games, but I will start competing in the month of April in Botswana, followed by two races in Zambia and then my first local race will be in Bulawayo at Whitecity Stadium in June for the inter-prov competitions".
"Last year I did not have sponsors to compete races outside the country but surely this time around I'm targeting electronic times, I've been working very hard for the past few months and I believe I can run close to African records times",said Gushure.
Tapiwa Gushure resurfaced in 2021 at White city stadium when everyone thought he was done with athletics. Defeating Ronald Muchichwa in the 100m dash, claiming gold and clocking a personal best of 10.78 seconds.
The athlete also added that he has making use of different training grounds as scheduled according to the program set by the coach.
"I have been using a few good grounds around Bulawayo to make the trainings more fun and adventurous which include Hartfield, Mzilikazi primary, Nust and sometimes at Sobukhazi were Ihlosi usually occupy under coach Ben", he added.
Other Bulawayo athletes to watch out for this season are red hot 400m specialist Dennis Moyo, Ronald Muchichwa, Samukele Ngwenya, and Hillary Nkala among others.
Financially stable athletes have been prioritising racing outside the country to have proper personal best times recorded by the electronic time machine due to the fact that Zimbabwe does not provide electronic time.
In most local races officials are seen using mobile phones, hand stop watch to record race times in competitions which tends to be inaccurate and a displeasing effort to athletes and coaches.
