The National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (Naaz) president Tendai Tagara was left a disappointed man after the cancellation of the African Junior Championship that had been slated for South Africa this month.
REPORT BY KENNETH NYANGANI
The prestigious event was scheduled to start from June 27-30 in Pretoria.
The cancellation was due to the wrangle between the South African Olympic Committee and the Athletics South Africa (ASA).
“The event has been called off after the President and the executive of Athletics South Africa (ASA) was suspended by the South African Olympic Committee,” he said.
“The suspended executive wrote to the Confederation of African Athletics that they cannot organise the event because of the suspension.
“We wanted to use the championships to increase the number of the athletes who will represent the country at the World Youth championships in Ukraine next month, since the event was set to be used as the qualifying event. Anyway, we are going to use the eight athletes that have already qualified,” Tagara said.
Confederation of Athletics Africa is set to meet in August on the sidelines of the World Athletics Championships that are slated for Russia to discuss some of these hindrances.
