Fungai Muderere
A HUFF and puff for $112 000 in four and-a-half minutes!
Never mind the fact that many athletes reportedly struggled to qualify for ZITF Coca-Cola Four-Minute Mile for one reason or another, those that will take part in a contest due for Saturday will breathe in a loud and heavy way all in the quest to grab the above-mentioned attractive first prize money.
By Thursday afternoon, 12 athletes had already qualified for the event and Bulawayo Athletics Board (BAB) was later in the day set to hold the final qualifiers of the event.
“Twelve athletes have qualified for the final event.
We are looking forward to having 20 athletes on the final day and if we do happen to get more than 20 by the end of the day Thursday, will then have our semi-finals that will help us trim the number to 20.
$112 000 is up for grabs which I think it’s a lot of money. Imagine getting it in less than five minutes.
And $56 000 is in store for the first runner-up and $49 000 for the second runner-up,” said BAB chairperson Watson Madenyika.
He added: “There are athletes from as far as Harare who have confirmed that they will be coming for the final qualifier and we hope to also have a good number of local athletes coming to try their luck.
We have had athletes recording poor times, which is of great concern, but we hope those that have failed in previous qualifiers will attend the final qualifiers and try to improve their times.”
The ZITF Coca-Cola Four-Minute Mile has a pre-requisite time of four minutes 31 seconds for one to qualify for the final at the ZITF main arena.
He encouraged athletics enthusiasts to come in their large numbers to experience an exciting contest that will help the participants prepare for the forthcoming African Senior Champions in Mauritius, World Championships in the USA and World Junior Championships that will be staged by Columbia.
He added that they were grateful to the Coca-Cola Company that had continued to sponsor the race.