Previewing the 2013 Track &
Field season for African Athletes By Annimari Korte
This year is no different from the last
couple years when it comes to the whole athletics world waiting to see what David Rudisha can do. Can he run even better and go under 1.40.00? With a pacemaker, I believe it’s possible. With a time of 1.39, he would have every right to de- clare himself a legend like Usain Bolt.
Talking about sprinters, the most interesting ones to watch will be Ngonidzashe Makusha who is coming back from injuries, and Ge- rald Phiri, who has been training with Ty- son Gay this year. I talked with them to find out what we can expect this year.
Ngonidzashe, better known as just Ngoni, injured his Achilles’ in the begin- ning of last year before the season even properly started. The Zimbab- wean made history a year earlier in NCAA championships by winning both, the 100m and the long jump titles. Something only the likes of Jesse
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Owens, DeHart Hubbard and Carl Lewis have been able to do.
The 2011 World Athletics Championships bronze medalist, who has potential to be a long jump world champion, is now training healthy: “Training is going well, I’m back running again and still working on my leg strength. The ten- don feels better since it’s been 7 months after the surgery.” Makusha told me.
Ngoni Makusha
“This coming year my goal is still the same as before, I want to compete with the best. At the same time I want to build into compet- ing, not just jump into it. As for doing both long jump and 100m, I’m not sure yet.
I still have a lot of work to do before I gain close to full strength in my calf. It all depends on how much strength I gain back,” he said.
Gerald Phiri is another sprinter to watch this year. He has graduated from Texas A&M University and is now training in Florida with Tyson Gay. Phiri has had a
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