Harare — UNITED States-based long jumper Ngonidzashe Makusha is set to write his own piece of history by becoming only the second athlete to represent Zimbabwe in the field events at the Olympic Games.

Makusha recently soared to new heights in the long jump event when he leapt 8,16 metres at a National Collegiate Athletic Association track and field meet in the United States.

His distance was way inside the Olympic Games B Standard mark of 8,05m and was only four centimetres outside the A Standard qualifying mark of 8,20m.

This remarkable achievement by Makusha saw him joining a growing list of Zimbabwean athletes who have either set an A or B Standard qualifying time or mark for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, in August.

And if Makusha is included in Team Zimbabwe 2008 for the Beijing Games, he will follow the footsteps of triple jumper Ndabezinhle Mdlongwa who was the first athlete to represent Zimbabwe in the field events at the Olympic Games.

Mdlongwa, a former Africa triple jump record holder, placed his name in the country's athletics history books when he became the first athlete to represent Zimbabwe in the field events at the Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, in 1992. However, the former Plumtree High School pupil did not win any medal in Seoul.

Robert Mutsauki, the Zimbabwe Olympic Games chief executive, yesterday said Makusha would be included in the team for the Beijing Games pending confirmation of his result from the United States.

"We recently received his (Makusha's) latest result from another United States-based Zimbabwean athlete, sprinter Brian Dzingai.

"This is a good mark which actually qualifies him for this year's Olympic Games but we are only awaiting for the official result to be sent to us from the United States.

"And if that result is confirmed and is not wind assisted, he will become the 12th member of the team for the Beijing Games," Mutsauki said.

The ZOC boss was also convinced that Makusha would set an A Standard mark before the Beijing Games as there are a number of collegiate championships lined-up for him in the United States.

Mutsauki said that another United States-based Zimbabwean athlete, sprinter Malvin Bonde, was also reported to have recorded a B Standard qualifying time of 10.23 seconds in the men's 100m event at a recent collegiate track and field championship. However, Mutsauki said, this performance does not count in terms of qualification for the Beijing Games because it was wind assisted.

The ZOC boss said it was also pleasing to note that Dzingai, who has already qualified for the 200m event at the Beijing Games with an A Standard time, recently ran a good time of 20.30s in the United States.

"In fact, Dzingai also indicated that he set a B Standard qualifying time for the Games' 100m event.

"However, if we end up with three sprinters who would have attained B Standard qualifying times in the 100m event, we can only enter one of them at the Olympic Games for that particular event," Mutsauki said.

He said they also believed that the men's 4x100m relay team has good prospects for qualifying for the Olympic Games and were making arrangements for them to secure a qualifying performance by competing in Europe before the Games.

In order to qualify for the Beijing Games, the men's 4x100m relay team needs to be ranked in the Top 16 in the world.

And the performance used to rank them is the average of their best two performances.

Although the men's 4x100m relay already have some performances recorded during last year's All-Africa Games in Algeria where they won a bronze medal, ZOC believe that they need to record faster times in order for them to stand a good chance of being ranked in the Top 16.

He said time was also running out for a number of local marathon runners, who are currently sitting on B Standard qualifying times, to set A Standard qualifying times for the Beijing Games.