Paris, France — Zimbabwe’s pair of Tapiwanashe Makarawu and Makanakaishe Charamba start their quest on the Paris 2024 Olympic Video games at present once they compete within the males’s 200m spherical one heats on the Stade de France.
The heats are scheduled for 7:55pm.
Makarawu and Charamba earned their slots on the Video games when working the qualifying occasions throughout the qualification interval.
Charamba certified with a time of 20.00 seconds, beating the 20.16 seconds qualifying time. His private finest is nineteen.95 seconds.
Makarawu ran 19.93 seconds to earn his place on the Video games, setting a brand new nationwide report within the course of. It is also his private finest.
The 2 sprinters are making their maiden look on the quadrennial show-piece.
Charamba would be the first in motion, in warmth three the place he’s up in opposition to a few of the prime contenders equivalent to Letsile Tebogo of Botswana. South Africa’s Benjamin Richardson can be in the identical warmth.
Makarawu is in warmth 5 the place he faces the likes of USA’s Erriyon Knighton, who barely missed out on medals on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics when ending fourth.
However as he makes his maiden Olympics look, Makarawu is just not studying a lot into his opponents.
“I’m simply going to have enjoyable, me and my coach mentioned this already. I’m simply going to have enjoyable with the opposite guys and simply run my race as a result of I had a protracted season.
“I’ve been working since January, now it is like eight months while I’m nonetheless working, so no matter end result I’m going to have tomorrow it’s what it’s. However I’m simply going to have enjoyable.”
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There are six heats and the primary three in every warmth advance to the semi-finals. All others go for the repechage spherical.
Within the new repechage format, athletes who don’t qualify by place in spherical one heats can have a second likelihood to qualify for the semi-finals by collaborating in repechage heats.
This replaces the previous system of athletes advancing by the quickest occasions along with prime placings within the first-round heats.
“But when I make it to the semis, I’m making an attempt by all means to keep away from the repechage spherical as a result of I do not need to overload my physique in order that I might be good and contemporary for the semi-finals.
“These guys are actually quick to be sincere. Everybody is aware of that. However I’m not taking a look at them as a result of I do know I’m not going to match their degree proper now as a result of it is the truth.
“I’m not being detrimental or one thing but it surely’s actuality . . . However it’s what it’s, I’m simply going to have enjoyable with them.
“I do know my physique is in form. I do know bodily I’m in form and I’m simply going to be on the market mentally match and go on the market and execute my race, and have enjoyable with the opposite guys,” stated Makarawu.
The repechage spherical is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon and the semi-finals are on Wednesday.
In the meantime, marathon runners Rutendo Nyahora and Isaac Mpofu arrived in France yesterday forward of their occasions scheduled for the weekend.
Mpofu will characterize the nation within the males’s marathon on August 10 and Nyahora would be the final Zimbabwean athlete in competitors with the ladies’s marathon going down on August 11.