MIDDLE-DISTANCE athletes Caroline Mhandu in the women’s 500m and Lucky Chitimbe in the 1 500m, romped home to collect gold for Zimbabwe in the African Union Sports Council Region 5 Under-20 Youth Games at White City Stadium yesterday.
Thandiwe Moyo Sports Correspondent
Mhandu finished the race strongly winning gold in 17mins 45,72secs followed closely by compatriots Anna Bungu in silver medal position with 17mins 45,80secs and in the bronze medal rank Bertha Chikanga in 18mins 11,82secs.
Chitimbe who ran in the T12 men 1 500m event added to Zimbabwe’s gold collection when he finished in four minutes 08,89secs with Namibia’s Abraham Nilifanghiwfavali coming in seconds later in four minutes 36,99secs and in third place came another Zimbabwean Tapiwa Bhasera in four minutes 37,07secs.
Another gold medal came in the field events through Nomagugu Ndlovu who leapt 12,04m with Eunice Khutlo of Botswana earning herself a silver medal with 11,93m jump while in third position was South Africa’s Somien Schuttle with a 11,77 jump.
Zimbabwe also collected medals in the 400m hurdles after Kellyrose Tapfumaneyi finished the race in one minute 4,71secs to earn a silver medal.
She lost out on the gold medal to South Africa’s Chante Finger who clocked one minute 2,82secs while in the bronze medal podium was Francisco Miclenia of Angola who finished in one minute 4,95secs.
Yvonne Vanhuvaone who had been tipped to perform well at the games did not race in her usual events, but was thrust in the hurdles where she struggled to complete the race finishing fourth in one minute 06,09secs.
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Vanhuvahone has proved to be strong in the 100, 200 and 400m events, but did not take part in the 200m heats yesterday.
Pride Lusinga got another silver medal for Zimbabwe when he finished second in the 400m hurdles in 52,76secs. He lost out on the gold to Mozambique’s Creeve Armando Machava who clocked 52,07secs, but beat South Africa’s Larry Lombard who finished in third in 53,01secs.
Two more medals came in the 1 500m men’s final through Nyasha Matsetse in second place with a time of four minutes 1,26secs and Titus Nyathi in four minutes 2,39secs.
Boitumelo Masilo of Botswana powered to the finish line with about 50m left in the race to win in a close time of four minutes 92secs.
Today finals of the 200m, shot put, discus, the 4x100m and 4x400m relays will be held.
