NCAA Indoor Nationals Roundup By Leslie Koroma
The NCAA Indoor Nationals which were held at the mint condition brand new Gilliam Indoor facility at the Texas A&M University on the 11th and 12th of March produced a number of surprises for Africa as Ngo- nidzashe Makusa of Zimbabwe went on to win the long jump national title with a jump of 8.14 meters. He sent a loud and clear message in runner up year to the summer Olympic Games that he has arrived among the ranks of all world class long jump athletes.
With the likes of Ngonidzashe Makusa, sprinter jumper Blessing Okagbare of Nigeria and Ola Sesay a long Jumper for Sierra Leone Africa stands a very strong chance to win double Gold Medals in the Olympic next summer in London.
Ngonidzashe jump along with Leonard Korir’s win of
the 5000 meters event where he set a new NCAA meet record at 13:26:01secs were the highlight for African athletes during the indoor national meet at College Station, Texas.
The potential of seeing a repeat performance by Gerald Phiri of Zambia in the 60 meters dash and the 200 meters where he had set a world leading mark back in January fell short as Gerald failed to make the finals in the 200meters and came up way short in the 60 meters dash in the finals as well.
In other results; American athlete with a very strong connection to Sierra Leone Jeneba Tarmoh placed second in the 200 meters finals race where she bettered earlier performances of the year with a time of 22.88 sec maintaining a top ten global ranking.
Nigeria’s Endurance Abinuwa a Junior at UTEP placed fourth in the 400 meters finals race with a time of 53.06 sec and Dumisane Hlaselo a South African athlete who is a Junior at Florida placed fourth in the Mile race in a time of 4:00.97sec. Dumisane holds the South African Junior National Re- cord in the 1,500-meter run (3:38.15) …Other personal-bests include 1:48.41 (800m), 8:17.19 (3,000m) and 13:48.67 (5,000m).
Now with the Indoor Track season drawing to a close we turn our attention to rather busy outdoor season which will see most of Africa’s best Track and Field athletes competing In the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Daegu South Korea and the All African Games in Maputo Mozambique.
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