DStv, Rift Valley Club launch athletics camp in Karatu town

Dar es Salaam.  In a bid to churn out more runners ahead of International Competitions, MultiChoice-Tanzania – working in close collaboration with the Rift Valley Club – has launched a special athletics camp in Karatu, Mbulu, in Manyara Region.

The camp will be also supervised by Athletics Tanzania (AT), and the prospective runners would be trained courtesy of MultiChoice-Tanzania the main sponsors through its Digital Satellite Television (DStv).

The launching ceremony was attended by retired runner John Stephen Akhwari, the AT secretary general, Wilhelm Gidabuday and the AT Vice President (Technical), Dr Hamad Ndee.

The camp has so far attracted 16 up-and-coming runners who are being trained under prominent coaches, according to the MultiChoice-Tanzania Head of Communications Department, Johnson Mshana.

Mshana said that they decided to establish the camp as part of their mission and vision to develop sports in Tanzania.

Noting that athletics has so far had a good history in Tanzania and abroad, Mshana said he believes that the country will continue to have prominent runners on the back of the ‘DStv’ camp.

“Our target is to see Tanzania gaining the top position in athletics in the world – and DStv has taken the initiative to facilitate the camp, whose ‘ambassador,’ Francis DamianoDamas, won the Silver medal in the Bahamas’s Youths Commonwealth Games last year,” MrMshana said.

For his part, Akhwari called upon budding runners to fully utilize the camp in order to become the world’s top runners.

Taking the opportunity to commend DStv for the investment, MrAkhwarialso  called upon other firms to follow in the firm’s footsteps with a similar initiative.

“DStv has done a commendable thing at a time when budding runners in Tanzania fail to do well in sports for lack of appropriate facilities and services. DStv has decided to facilitate the club and the camp to enable up-and-coming runners to live comfortably and come to love sports,” Akhwari waxed lyrical.

“This is the first athletics camp of its kind in Manyara region, and we call upon other firms to promote games in Tanzania in like manner,”  Akhwari stressed.

The AT secretary general, Wilhelm Gidabuday, said the project is a working partnership with DStv in the development of sports in the country.