Zimbabwe: Mkandla Rallies Team Zim

THE Zimbabwe National Paralympic Committee vice president, Alexander Mkandla, is optimistic the country’s representatives at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games will make a good impression.

Pamela Shumba will be the first in action, when she takes part in the 100m T12 event today at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo.

Shumba and Vimbai Zvinowanda are the country’s only representatives.

Zvinowanda qualified for 200m T47 and is scheduled to compete on Saturday.

“They are quite strong and they are prepared,” said Mkandla.

“We are hoping they will get something at the Games, looking at their fitness, and the time they have had in training.

“I believe they can pull through from the first round. I have been monitoring their training and she (Shumba) has been improving her time.

“It (lack of competition) might affect them, but with the time they have had in training, I am confident they can overcome the challenge.

“We didn’t have many competitions, but when we went to Dubai it was an eye-opener, and they worked on their weaknesses, when they came back.”

Shumba will face Melissa Nair Tillner Galeano of Paraguay, China’s Yanfen Liang and Oksana Boturchuk from Ukraine in Heat One, Round One.

There are four heats lined up for the women’s 100m T12.

The first athlete in each heat and the next four fastest advance to the semi-finals.

Shumba, with a personal and season best of 15,88 seconds is likely to face stiff competition from Boturchuk, who comes in as the favourite in this heat, with a personal best of 11,96 seconds.

Liang’s personal best of 12,33 seconds is the second best time in Heat One.

Tillner Galeano has a personal best of 16,39 seconds.

“I will try my level best and I expect to compete well. I think we are good to go, Dubai was my first time competing at that level, and it was a bit difficult.

“But, now, I think I am used to it,” said Shumba.

They arrived in Japan more than a week ago and had some time to fine-tune their preparations, under the guidance of coach Mildred Baye.

“They are very excited because, since it’s the Paralympics, they feel we are a family and they feel they can also do much better,” said Baye.

Source:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *