A ZIMBABWEAN Olympic athlete is launching a bid to compete for Great Britain at the London Games in July.
Lloyd Zvasiya, 30, has put his name forward for the men’s 400M at the Aviva Indoor UK Trials and Championships being held in Sheffield this weekend.
As the penultimate trials before the Olympic trials in June 2012, the competition is a chance for athletes to make their mark and win a place in the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team for the IAAF World Indoor Championships taking place in March in Istanbul.
Zvasiya represented Zimbabwe at the 2004 Olympics in Greece, the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Manchester and various editions of the All Africa Games and the African Athletics Championships – winning several medals along the way.
The Zimbabwean set his best indoor time of 47.81 seconds in Budapest, Hungary, in 2003. Since then, his times have fallen short of that high mark.
Zvasiya declined an interview with New Zimbabwe.com on Thursday, stating bizarrely: “I don’t want anything to do with politics. I don’t want an interview.”
Zvasiya won national praise in 2004 at the African Athletics Championships in the DRC when he had to sing Zimbabwe’s national anthem – after a band hired for the games played the old anthem, Nkosi Sikelela/Ishe Komborera.
Zimbabwe's men had just won the 4x400 relay but when they went to collect their medals, the band played the old song. A similar incident had happed with the Zimbabwe national team at the Africa Cup of Nations finals in the same year.
While the football team had let the old anthem be played, Zvasiya and his winning relay team insisted that the correct anthem be played.
After several minutes' delay, Zvasiya took the microphone himself and belted the new anthem, Simudzai Mureza wedu WeZimbabwe/Kalibusiswe Ilizwe leZimbabwe, drawing a huge cheer from the crowd.
Now Zvasiya, who lives in Coventry, could win for his adopted country to the sound of God Bless the Queen.