Verónica José: The Mozambican quietly becoming an elite athlete

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Verónica José: The Mozambican quietly becoming an elite athlete

7:14 CAT | 18 Jul 2022

Three years after it started investing in athletics, Mozambique’s Portuguese Association ( AP) has become a powerhouse in the country and is racing to make Verónica José one of the six best junior female athletes in the world

The 2022 World Athletics U20 Championships (World Junior Championships) to be held in Cali, Colombia, from 2 to 7 August 2022, will be Verónica José’s debut in a major international competition. But the runner’s track record in the 1,500 metres inspires confidence in both the athlete and her coach, Alberto Lário, that the AP will make it to the finals.

“Only Verónica has qualified, met the minimum standard requirement to participate in the World Junior Championships in Colombia. On the part of the Portuguese Association, everyone is happy. It was a bet they made to support Mozambican athletics and the results are there, it’s a winning bet,” Lário said in an interview with Lusa minutes before a training session at Maputo’s Parque dos Continuadores tartan track.

Verónica completed a series of competitions in a five-week internship in Portugal in order to achieve the minimum mark needed to go to the World Athletics U20.

READ: Mozambique: Mutola back on the track in honour of Craveirinha

In a competition in Braga, she beat the time of 4.29 minutes required to qualify for the world championship, and has been working on improving her performance.

“In her last training session, she dropped another five seconds,” her coach enthused.

“Our first objective is to reach the final and then, from there, anything can happen. We know it is very complicated, because right now we have athletes from Kenya and Ethiopia who are very strong,” he emphasised.

Being among the six best junior long-distance runners out of a total of 40 who will participate in Cali will be a great achievement for Verónica José who, at first sight, could have seemed an unlikely bet for Alberto Lário.

Six years ago, Verónica came seventh in the 800 meters girls’ final of the school games, a competition organized annually by the Ministry of Education and Human Development of Mozambique (MINEDH).

Verónica faced a challenge in those games in Gaza: it was the first time she ran wearing athletic shoes.

“She ran the first race barefoot, for the elimination, like all the athletes who were there, and then, at the last minute, the deputy minister arrived and made everyone wear ‘spikes’,” the coach recalled.

She was among the athletes who struggled most with the footwear change, he added.

Lário’s intuition, shaped over 35 years as an athletics coach, saw in Verónica José a “diamond in the rough”, and he brought her from Tete province in central Mozambique to his home in the Mozambican capital.

“She had the best chance of becoming a great athlete and I was lucky. I got it right and she is there, with all the strength and with all the will. The results speak louder than I do,” says the coach, who left the athletics club he founded in Galicia, Spain, to return to his homeland.

Now, everyone’s thoughts are on Colombia.

Increasingly optimistic, Verónica José told Lusa that her aspiration was to reach the final of the World Junior Championships in August and then fight her way to the 2024 Olympic Games.

“My preparation has been very good, although very tough. But it is necessary to train hard to achieve positive results,” she said shyly, before starting her training session.

At the Olympic Games, Verónica will also be able to run in the 3,000 and 5,000 meters, because, by then, she will be ready to participate in these events, says coach Alberto Lário.

“I would like to get to the [Paris] Olympic Games, and I see that this is the beginning. First, it’s the Junior Championships, and from there, onwards and upwards,” she said.

A plan with well-defined stages and whose objective, “at this moment, is to work to be able to drop from 4.28 minutes to 4.25 minutes and reach the medals”.

“The support of the association has been a positive factor, even to achieve the minimum in Portugal. They were the ones who paid for everything and who believed in me. The results [I have achieved], I owe them to them,” she said, smiling at the suggestion of her being a symbol of female leadership: “I am the only girl in the group and I try to train at their [the men’s] rhythm.”

Another AP athlete showing potential is Alex Macuácuá, who, at the age of 18, is already unbeatable in the juniors in Mozambique, and was only seconds away from qualifying for the world championships in Cali, says Lário.

The athlete, also recruited in the school games, had to return early from an internship in Portugal, and so failed to compete for the World Championships, because the Mozambican Athletics Federation wanted him to concentrate on his participation in the Commonwealth Games and Organization of Islamic Cooperation games, which will take place this year.

“If Alex had stayed in Portugal for two more weeks, I’m sure he would have achieved the minimum,” said the coach. “He finished the first race just 1.56 above the minimum of 3.48 required for the men’s 1,500 meters.”

For his age, Macuacua’s progress “has been spectacular,” he continued.

Another big AP bet is athlete Zacarias Sitoe, 27, who is working to beat Mozambican marathon runner António Repinga’s still-standing national record. Fifty years ago, Repinga covered 42,198 meters in 2.28 hours in the then capital, Lourenço Marques, now Maputo.

Sitoe would have surpassed that record in a marathon in South Africa, but the feat was not credited, due to a technical problem in the timing, Lário said.

The mark, he continued, could drop later this year, when the AP runner participates in a competition in Portugal.

“He can run under 2:25 hours, and I think he will make his mark in Porto or Lisbon this year,” he said.

Lário says that Mozambique has the human capital to be a power in African athletics, as long as there is the necessary support. The AP, having already masterminded the creation of an athletics academy, will continue to do its part.