LONG-distance Zimbabwean runner, Isaac Mpofu, who will represent the country in marathon at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on August 10, will do his best to bring a medal home, his coach Benson Chauke has said.
Chauke told Xinhua in an interview ahead of the official opening of the Games on Friday that the 35-year-old sergeant in the Zimbabwe Republic Police has gone through rigorous training since January and was raring to go.
Mpofu won a bronze medal at the 2023 African Games in Ghana and also participated in the World Athletics Championships in 2019 and 2022.
Mpofu, one of seven athletes making up Team Zimbabwe at the Olympics, is the only one to have qualified from home since all the others are foreign-based, Chauke said.
The coach said it was everyone's dream to run at high-profile games such as the Olympics and despite the anxiety associated with such an event, Mpofu was determined to bring a medal back home.
"The anxiety is there, but we're doing everything in our power to say go out there, enjoy, give your all. If you all can bring us a medal to the country, then well and good," he said.
Chauke, who has been training Mpofu since 2022, said the two of them have done their best to make sure that the athlete was motivated, including allowing him to participate in local races where he excelled.
"So it is our hope that whatever we have put together will manifest itself in Paris in a positive way, that is if everything works together on the day of the competition. So yes, I would say we're prepared. We're going to go there, we're going to raise our Zimbabwean flag high and give it our all and see how it unfolds," he said.
The duo will leave Zimbabwe on August 3, just a week before Mpofu goes onto the track.
Chauke said they would in the meantime take advantage of the high altitude in Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe, while preparing for the conditions in Paris.
"The lower altitude in Paris will work in our favor," he said.
The coach called on sports fans to give Mpofu all the support they could, including engaging him on his social media page.
"He needs affirmation, he needs encouragement, and he needs you to uplift him by word of mouth," he said.
