Four athletes traveled to Heroes Stadium in Lusaka on 8th April to take part in the All-Comers Challenge. This was an event involving the best athletes from around the country that would give under-18 and senior World Championship hopefuls the chance to qualify for these events by meeting the qualifying standards.
There were
five men’s 100m heats and Sambazya Ngulube ran in the very first one. He had a
fair start but transitioned well and accelerated away to win in a time of 11.14
seconds. David Kumwenda ran in the second heat which had a higher level of
competition. He finished in fifth place, just missing out on his personal best
time.
Soon after
the 100m races, Maria and Johanna Bangala were ready for their 400m race. They
were up against an athlete from Zimbabwe but had no trouble in finishing in
first and second place in the end, Johanna clocking 57.79 seconds and Maria
recording a time of 60.07 seconds. This was a decent time for Maria considering
she had only trained twice in the past four weeks!
David Kumwenda
was also competing in the long jump and produced a great series of jumps, many
over 6 metres. His best distance was 6.27m, just 3cm short of his personal
best, earning him second place overall.
Overall, it
was another great experience for the athletes, who were also inspired by
experiencing first-hand Sydney Siame’s new Zambian record of 9.88 seconds for
100m. The opportunity for the Chengelo athletes gave them a chance to see where
they are personally and compare themselves to the very best Zambian athletics
has to offer.
After the event, the Congolese Athletics Federation saw the official results and selected Johanna Bangala to compete for them at the IAAF World U-18 Athletics Championships in Nairobi, Kenya in July. Congratulations to Johanna and the entire Bangala family. Start preparing now and make us proud!
