“WHAT happened to Ngonidzashe Makusha? That was one talented boy,” quipped one Tinashe Chipenyu in a post on Twitter on August 20 after realising that the 2011 IAAF World Athletics Championships long jump bronze medalist was not part of the Zimbabwe team at the just ended Rio Olympic Games.
BY DANIEL NHAKANISO
Seven days earlier another Twitter user Kwame Som-Pimpong from Ghana had also asked a similar question about the talented track and field star: “What is Ngonidzashe Makusha up to? That guy was next in line among the great 100m and LJ (long jump) athletes,” said Som-Pimpong.
Five years ago Makusha emerged as one of the world’s most exciting talents with a spectacular double at the 2011 NCAA Championships, which evoked memories of US greats such as Carl Lewis and Jesse Owens after completing a memorable 100m and long jump double.
He did so with national records of 9,89 seconds for the 100m and 8,40m for the long jump, before proceeding to win Zimbabwe’s first ever medal at the IAAF World Athletics Championships after his bronze medal in the long jump at the 2011 edition held in Daegu, South Korea.
Befittingly, Makusha, who had come within just a centimetre of a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics aged just 21, was awarded the Bowerman Award, which is accorded to the top female and male track and field collegiate athlete in the US.
Ostensibly on the cusp of a special track and field career, injury cruelly struck in May 2012.
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The then 26-year-old Makusha ruptured an Achilles during a routine training session, leaving his London Olympic Games dream in tatters. Makusha was one of Zimbabwe’s brightest medal prospects at the London Olympic Games. And in 2014, when he thought he had returned to full strength, he tore his adductor and needed surgery.
In the end he missed out on qualification for the just ended Rio Olympic Games — his second Olympics in succession since his fourth place finish at the Beijing Olympics.
The Florida-based Makusha, who is in the country on holiday to reunite with family and friends, told Standardsport in an interview last week of his frustration at watching some of his former teammates and competitors on TV.
“It was painful,” Makusha said with clear disappointment in his voice. “I know most of the athletes who were competing in Rio. I have competed with most of them either at college or internationally so it obviously made me sad knowing I could have been there doing something that I really enjoyed and representing my country. It felt like missing out on a wedding or a big occasion that you desperately wanted to attend,” he said.
Makusha said while he was gutted not to be in Brazil at the Rio Olympics, the disappointment also acted as extra motivation for him to bounce back strongly as he has set himself a target of qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“It was hard to take but on the upside I also took it as a refueling moment, just like eating. It gave me more energy and extra drive to see things from the outside because when you only see things from the inside you don’t see the whole picture.
“Tokyo is a very attainable target, I’m not that old. God willing if the body is still carrying me to that extent I will be happy to represent Zimbabwe in Tokyo. I’ve not given up I still want to continue with the struggle. I enjoy running, I just don’t do it for someone or for something. I derive so much satisfaction from competing, winning and achieving my personal goals,” he said.
Although Makusha has not given up on his goal to compete at the next Olympic Games, in Tokyo, he also seems to have started to prepare for the future after acquiring his US Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) coaching certificate last year.
“I feel I can help others to get to the level which I reached in the future. I don’t know where my future will take me, I may be a coach or I will do something else but if the opportunity comes I will be happy to help. At the moment I help out as a volunteer coach at my training base at Florida State University where I also help the staff at the university,” said Makusha.
An enthusiastic footballer and volleyball player, Makusha’s athletics career started at Mandedza High School where he enrolled in 2001 and stayed until the first term of 2006 when he moved to Churchill to complete his Upper Sixth.
His breakthrough however came in 2007 when he was spotted by fellow countryman and the then Florida State University (FSU) coach Ken Harnden who was visiting his parents in Zimbabwe.
It was on this trip that Harnden, the 1998 Commonwealth 400m hurdles bronze medallist proposed Makusha should move to compete and study at FSU.
“Ken noticed the potential and decided to help me get the scholarship to FSU. If he had not come I wouldn’t have got that opportunity and Zimbabwe wouldn’t have won their first medal at the World Championships or finish fourth at the Olympics,” reflects Makusha.
