CONCERN OVER LONG DISTANCE RUNNERS’ FINISHING TIMES

MANZINI – The long distance athletes’ finishing times leave a lot to be desired.

This is if the comments by Athletics Eswatini (AE) Secretary Thoba Mazibuko are anything to go. He was reacting to the past Sunday’s performance in the National Championships Qualifiers at Mavuso Sports Centre. “The short distance runners are doing well and you can see with time they will improve. They need a little bit of coaching and they are good to go.
“When it comes to the the long distance runners, their times are not impressive. The coaches must do something about it,” Mazibuko said.

success

He went on to commend the clubs for making the qualifiers a success. “We had about nine clubs in the event which is quite impressive. I would say we had over 200 athletes who participated. This is a good start and hopefully by the next qualifiers, we will have more athletes,” he said. Meanwhile, National Athletics Coach Muzi Mabuza admitted that there was a lot of work to be done in the long distance category. “Mazibuko is spot on; we have to do better as coaches. We need to put these athletes who are competing in long distances in competitive races. Right now they are only competing locally. What also is a big letdown is that most clubs are focusing on the short distances which lead to the long distance runners being neglected,” he said. He said it was an issue they were looking into as coaches.

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