PEMBROKE — Nearly 17 months after registering his first qualifying mark with a time of 2:16.51 at the Chevron Houston Marathon, former UNC Pembroke all-American Pardon Ndhlovu was guaranteed a spot on the Zimbabwe Olympic Team that will compete in the 27th Summer Olympic Games in August in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
On Thursday, the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe named three athletes to represent the country in the men’s marathon for Rio 2016. Ndhlovu will join Olympians Wirimai Juwawo and Cuthbert Nyasango, who competed in the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Ndhlovu has posted two Olympic-qualifying times in the last 17 months, dominating both the 2015 and 2016 Houston Marathon. He finished 10th in each race and crossed the line in 2:16.51 in 2015 and 2:17.32 in 2016. Both marks came in under the 2:19 qualifying standard.
Ndhlovu ran cross country and track for the Black & Gold from 2009-12. A four-time all-Peach Belt Conference standout, the Harare, Zimbabwe, native won the 2011 and 2012 PBC Championship and was named the PBC Runner of the Year both seasons, one of only four PBC men’s runners to ever win that award twice. His 2012 championship time of 24:20 stands as the third-fastest 8k run in the PBC Championships.
He also competed in PBC track and field in his senior season in 2013, the first year the conference held it as a championship sport. He was named the PBC Men’s Track Athlete of the Year that season, winning the 1,500- 5,000- and 10,000-meter runs. He advanced to the NCAA National Championships and was named an all-American in both the 5000- and 10000-meter runs. He still holds the PBC record in the 10000-meter run for all meets at 29:04.01.
Ndhlovu was named a Capital One Academic All-American twice during his career and received the NCAA postgraduate scholarship which allowed him to serve as a graduate assistant coach at Augusta for two years.
Ndhlovu will run in the Olympic marathon on the morning of August 21 in Rio de Janeiro — the final day of competition.
