BY ADRIAN MWANZA –
ZAMBIA Amateur Athletics Association (ZAAA) president Elias Mpondela has expressed shock at the International Association of Athletics Federation’s (IAAF)’s decision to scrap-off sprinter Sidney Siame’s 100m national record time of 9.88 seconds.

. Mpondela

Mpondela said yesterday the ZAAA was taken aback by the IAAF for the removal of the record from the All-Comers Meet and confirmed that they had contested the verdict because it was unfair.
IAAF scrapped off Siame’s record time of 9.88seconds set during the All-Comers Meet in April this year and pegged him back to the 10.18 seconds time he held before the event.
Also, second place finisher, Chindamba Hazemba’s amazing time of 10.01seconds was removed from the IAAF website.
“As ZAAA, we find this move very disturbing and we are going to follow it up with the vigour it deserves because we do not agree with IAAF,” he said.
From the time recorded in that race, the two runners managed to qualify to the World Championships which will be taking place in England next month and it remains to be seen whether they will be admitted to the games.

Mpondela said he did not know why IAAF doubted the runner’s time when the people that were handling the time-tronic machines were certified by the world body and were able technical people.
“Usain Bolt once ran a time of 9.58 but he has never repeated that feat and no one has questioned him but why should this be the case for Sidney and Hazemba,” he wondered.
Mpondela complained that this was an unfair move but that since there were channels, the ZAAA would follow those to air their grievance over Siame and Chindamba’s case.
“We are in discussions with IAAF and just hoping that this issue is sorted out as soon as possible because it is not right,” he said.
He said the ZAAA had since sent a detailed report to IAAF over what transpired on the day including the technical time-tronic device pictures and any necessary evidence to prove that the runners had hit the mark and that there were no errors.
He said it was unfortunate that IAAF questioned the timings when athletes from countries like Zimbabwe also took part in the same event where they qualified for major events like the under-18 World Championships in Kenya.
“Surely, even the three Zambian athletes that took part in the Under-18 World Championships where Niddy Mingilishi made it to the finals used the same timers to qualify. Now why should we be questioned in this manner,” he said.