By Miguel Suleyman, The Citizen Reporter
Dar es Salaam. While other sports struggle for places in the regional or continental level competitions, elite sports have done well internationally, only to find their sky-high leaps to success largely unnoticed.

The majority of Tanzanian sports fans know very little about the  impressive shows, motor rallies and other elite sports such as;golf, cricket and rugby, have contributed to shape the country’s image on the global sports arena.
But, The Citizen, despite its tender age, unveils some of the unheralded achievements, elite sports recorded since the country gained its independence 50 years ago.

It starts with a little known Tanzanian flag bearer, Lucille Cardwell, who was one of the members of the famous ‘Unsinkable Seven’, a nickname given to seven drivers and co-drivers who fought gallantly to finish the notoriously difficult East African Safari Rally.

The iron lady remains in the world record after conquering the unusually difficult rallies of 1963 and 1968.

About 50 years now, she remains unnoticied and so are other famed drivers like Bert Shankland and Zully Rehemtullah, only Nizar Jivani and Satinder Birdi, who are still active todate as figureheads of Tanzania motor sports success, get notable attention.

Still praised today as notable figures in the Safari Rally powerhouse, the “Unsinkable Seven” nickname was awarded on two occasions, in 1963 and 1968, when a number of mishaps were caused by heavy rainfall, both before and during the rally.

Cardwell, who finished seventh overall, was the first woman to have finished the grueling rally in the top ten and first Tanzanian woman to finish the tough rally.The second woman was Kenya-based Ann Taith and Sylvia King who finished 18th overall two years later.

Forty years later, only four women; Meenaz Ahmed, Prisca Taylor and Zainab Mnjeja joined the sport to become notable women in the sport.

“Women need support and motivation to make them join the sport like the way Sunvic did to me. Without them I couldn’t join the sport,” says Zainab Mjeja, one of the active women in the sport today.

According to Yusuf Ghor, the Automobile Association of Tanzania’s chief executive officer, The East African Safari Rally is considered one of the most grueling auto races in the world.

“It was, and still is to some extent, the testing ground for reliability in production cars. Up to 90 per cent of the cars entered in the race never finished. Tanzanians participated well, but very little was said about them,” he said.

The course itself has varied from year to year, averaging from 3,100 to or 4,000 miles in length, originally travelling though Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Arguably, 1966 was the banner year for Tanzania rallying scene when Tanganyika Motor Sports club driver Bert Shankland and Chris Rothwell became the first non-Kenyans to win the Rally.
88 cars entered the race and only 9 finished.

Shankland and Rothwell won again in their Peugeot in 1967 Safari Rally, their double victory, according to motorsports pundits cannot be achieved by the drivers of the present generation due to the fact that the event is almost defunct.

The 1970 East African Safari Rally covered 3,300 miles and crossed Kenya and Uganda, running at elevations from sea level to 10,000 feet. To demonstrate just how tough this course was, of the 91 cars entered in 1970 - only 19 finished. Of that number 4 of the top 7 cars were 510’s, with 6 Bluebirds finishing in total.

1973 was a return to victory for the 240Z, But not for Herrmann. Shekhar Mehta and his teammate “Lofty” Drews took first place overall.

The 1974 rally started as a very difficult race up a slippery slope.

Kallstrom and Billstam finished 4th overall in their 260z, with Tanzanian duo, Zully Rehmtullah and Jivani finishing 5th overall.

In 1975, Rehmtullah and Nizar Jivani were Nissan’s best drivers after staying at the  6th position in a Datsun 710 Violet.  

Though 1976 was not good for Nissan, Harry Kallstrom finishing in 7th and Remtullah and Jivan at 8th position gave the car-maker the much needed consolation.

Rehemtullah-Jivani team was again on the limelight in 1977 when they again finished 8th overall.

Rehmtullah and Jivani, who is now the President of AAT, are the only Tanzanian drivers to have finished the rally in top eight for five consecutive years, a record that is also unlikely to be shattered in the near future.

It is almost 50 years now since Cardwell showed the world Tanzanian lady’s driving supremacy; however, Bert Shankland who won the event twice, remains an undisputable hero of Tanzania’s motor rally.

Unfortunately, motor rally, being the only international event Tanzania hosts annually, it has not been accorded respect in the country’s gallery of popular sports.

 “I think we do better than soccer at both national and international levels, however, soccer gets all the attention because of its countrywide popularity,” notes Ghor.

Tanzania is one of seven African countries that host the rounds of FIA African Rally Championship, the biggest motoring event that attracts a number of famed international drivers.

Since getting the membership of the world’s motorsports governing body (FIA) in 2004, Tanzania has managed to produce a number of notable drivers who excelled in the spectacular events.

Arusha’s Navraj Hans and Randeep Birdi who have  been the best-placed Tanzanian in the continental class events, Amarjit Dhillon Sunvic, who competed and sponsored a number of big events, have  played  vital roles in making the sport advance to the higher levels.

Hans who began to excel in the continental class rallies aged just 21, has been the top placed Tanzanian driver in the continental class events since 2005 when he clinched third position behind Africa’s top speed merchants, Riyaz Kurji (RIP)  from Uganda and Zambian Muna Singh.

The same year he went on to finish fourth overall in Kenya’s KCB Safari Rally, one of the world’s toughest racing events.

Birdi and Randeep Birdi were the only Tanzanians who qualified to race in World Pirelli Finals  held in Rwanda. Hans fought gallantly but slightly missed the ticket on a controversial decision, while Birdi withdrew.

After Hans, Randeep Birdi, who follows his father’s steps, took over. Birdi was the top placed Tanzanian in the continental events.

Also having notable achievements at the continental level were  Tanga diehards, Issa Mohamed and Awadh Bafadhil. In 2006 and 2007, the duo fought hard to finish the grueling KCB Kenya Safari Rally after a superb performance in Dar es Salaam.

Bafadhil, who has clinched the navigator of the year award for the second time in a row is the best Tanga has ever produced. Bafadhil and Dar es Salaam’s are the Uhuru 50 champions.  

Likewise, Dar es Salaam’s Omar Bakhressa and Maisam Fazal, holders of records that are not likely to broken in recent years, also contributed immensely to the sport’s achievements, which, unfortunately failed to get its deserved attention.

AAT records show that Dar es Salaam-based Maisam Fazal owns ten records are also unlikely to be shattered in the recent years.

Maisam  and Omar Bakhresa ar the only Tanzanians who have competed in the five rounds of the Africa Rally Championship.

It was in 2006 when the duo took part in the ARC rounds held in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Africa.

They are followed by Ahmed Huwel, Navraj Hans and Pano Calavrias who took part in three rounds of the continental events. Fazal and Bakhresa were also the best-placed Tanzanians to excel in the Pearl of Africa Rally held in Uganda and finished fourth overall.

“Economic crisis that hit the world in 2008 did a big blow to the sport, we couldn’t travel outside Tanzania anymore after that,” said Fazal.

Iringa’s Ahmed Huwel has one brilliant record. He is the only Tanzanian to record the fastest time in the Super Special Stage (SSS) of KCB Safari Rally held in Nairobi in 2005. Also unheralded are golfers. Tanzania women golf team won the regional trophy twice before claiming the overall runner up title in the All Africa Golf Challenge in Abuja.

“We are only second to South Africa at the continental level at present,” says Mbonile Burton, Tanzania Ladies Golf Union (TLGU) president.  

Tanzania women cricket is also unfortunate to get little attention. The team won the African title in 2006 and finished overall runner uptwo years ago.

But the most wonderful moment came in 2007 when Tanzania’s national rugby team won Africa Castle Cup in the finals held at Freidkin Grounds in Arusha. People hardly believed Tanzania could have won it as the sport is rarely played in schools.

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