SA-based athlete Nobuhle Tshuma yearns to represen...

SA-based athlete Nobuhle Tshuma yearns to represent Zim

Patience Muchemwa

A South Africa-based Zimbabwean, Nobuhle Tshuma, is waiting for the day she will don national colours in marathon races.

Nobuhle, a 29-year-old young woman, was born in Zimbabwe on August 8, 1994, in rural Zhombe Joel, Midlands. She moved to Swaziland when she was 10 years old where her father and his family were living.

In 2007, she decided to go to South Africa when she was 14 years old in search of a better living.

“I was hired as a hairdresser at my early age. I was adopted by Swazi Gama from KwaZulu Natal. She was the owner of the salon and she taught me everything about beauty.”

Nobuhle is married to Givemore Mudzinganyama, also an athlete, and the two were blessed with three children.

She started her athletics career in 2012 after she started gaining weight.

“In 2012, I started gaining weight so I decided to lose weight. That’s how I started my athletics career...

“I got inspiration from watching sports, going to races and seeing people winning. That’s where I started working hard to improve my times and winning some competitions.”

Nobuhle is a long distance runner who competes in 10km, 21km, 42km and Ultra.

“Currently, I am attached to Entsika Athletics, where my coach is Hendrick Ramaala.

“I have achieved different times for marathon races: 10km 35 minutes, 21km 1hr 17minutes, Marathon 2hrs 42 minutes, 50km 3hrs 16 minutes and 56km 3hrs 45 minutes.”

She scooped most of her top race awards in 2023.

“2023 has my best year. I won many races, and I managed to score top 10 in those big races.”

Besides athletics, Nobuhle is a professional hairdresser.

Everything is well in Nobuhle’s career because she is being sponsored by top footwear manufacturers and her club.

“So far, I don’t have any challenges because I am being sponsored by New Balance as well as my club. They are helping me with training gear.”

Nobuhle’s wish is to be called by the Zimbabwe athletics board to represent the country in international competitions.

“The only thing that we need is the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe to take us to represent our country.

“They must not the select they know but all this must be on merit, current form of the athlete. Last month, there was a 50km world championship in India, but Zimbabwe did not take part as though we do not have the talent.

“We also wish to represent our own country. I know I am a good athlete, especially when it comes to Ultra. I was very disappointed. Even my husband won two oceans marathons this year, which is the greatest 56km in South Africa but they didn’t select him.

“That’s the challenges we are facing in our sport.”

Nobuhle encourages those who are pursuing the athletics career to be disciplined for them to achieve their goals.

“What I can say to people who want to achieve their goals is they have to be disciplined, hard-working, focused and be positive all the time, you can achieve your goals.”

She makes sure she is always in good form even during off-seasons.

“To keep my shape during off-seasons, I do some easy running just to keep my body strong and to avoid losing fitness because running is a much different sports.”

Nobuhle has a bit different choice of food as compared to other sportsmen.

“My favourite food is rice and beans, watermelon and bananas.”

She enjoys watching reality shows and listening to Trevor Dongo’s music.