53 Tanzanians set to seek places in Olympic Games

Dar es Salaam. Fifty-three sportsmen and women have been offered the chance to search for Olympic Games qualifying marks ahead of the event scheduled for July 23 to August 8 in Tokyo, Japan.

Tanzania will be among the 206 nations expected to compete in the event that will see a total of 11,091 sportsmen and women competing in 33 different sports with 339 events. So far runners, Alphonce Simbu and Failuna Matanga have secured qualifying marks ahead of the multisport event. Apart from the runners, Tanzania is also expected to field swimmers, judokas and amateur boxers. According to a report received by The Citizen, three swimmers namely, Collins Saliboko, Hilal Hilal and female Sylvia Caloiaro have been lined up to secure qualifying marks for the Games. Hilal was in Dubai gearing up for a qualifying event while Sylvia is in Belgium. Collins is now training in Tanzania with the Dar es Salaam Swimming Club. The list also includes 25 runners, 15 amateur boxers and 10 judokas who are entitled to search for the qualifying marks before the end of May.

Swimmers are expected to feature in South Africa’s qualifying event while amateur boxers are expecting to compete in France’s qualifying event and judokas in Morocco’s African championships event. Tanzania Swimming Association (TSA) technical director Amina Mfaume was quoted as saying that they are yet to get official date of the qualifying event in South Africa, but they expect the swimmers to secure the qualifying marks in their destination.

“We have up-to-date information from Dubai and Belgium, Collins is in Tanzania continuing with the training,” said Mfaume.

For his part, Judo Association of Tanzania (JATA) secretary general Innocent Mallya said judokas are now in training at Ukonga in Dar es Salaam ahead of the Games.

Athletics Tanzania (AT) Vice-president John Bayo said the 25 runners were selected by the former leadership and they have decided to maintain the list. He said the sportsmen and women would compete in various qualifying events to be held in different parts of the world. “The deadline of qualifying marks for the Games is June. So we expect the number of qualified athletes to increase further,” said Bayo.

Meanwhile, Boxing Federation of Tanzania (BFT) secretary general Lukelo Wililo said they have called 15 boxers to a training camp for a French tournament.

“Before the tournament, we will be competing in East and Central African countries to gauge the performances of our boxers,” he said.