Wilhelm Gidabuday explains his position on the good chances of the Team Tanzania at the 2016 Rio Olympics. PHOTO / ZEPHANIA UBWANI
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Wilhelm Gidabuday, who is currently involved in promotion of the sport through various platforms, said unlike in the past, the national squad selected for the Rio Olympics had enough time to train.
Arusha. A former national athlete has said he is optimistic on Tanzania’s performance in the coming Olympic Games.
Wilhelm Gidabuday, who is currently involved in promotion of the sport through various platforms, said unlike in the past, the national squad selected for the Rio Olympics had enough time to train.
“I have good feeling that our athletes will perform well this time around. Our team has been training since February this year, thanks to Athletics Tanzania (AT),” he told The Citizen at the weekend.
He said by the time the athletes leave for Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian city which will host the 31st Summer Olympics, they will be at the camp training in contrast with the 2012 London Games when the national squad camped for only a few days.
He added that a training stint initiated by the Tanzania Olympic Committee (TOC) under its Olympic Solidarity programme had paid off in that it has enabled one of the athletes Fabian Joseph to reach the qualification mark for the marathon event of the games.
Under the programme, the team set camp in Eldoret, Kenya since last year, later relocating to Arusha.
According to Gidabuday, three other national athletes who have already qualified for the Games are Alphonce Felix, Saidi Makula and Sara Ramadhani.
“They attained the qualification marks under the able training of Francis John,” he said. John is the national coach for the Tanzania team for the Rio Games which will be held from August 5 to 21 this year.
He applauded AT president Anthony Mtaka for mobilizing funds to finance camping of the athletes in the high altitude West Kilimanjaro camp.
At least each athlete was paid Sh600,000 for upkeep of their families as they trained for the Games as well as medical insurance cover for them and their families.
However, he called on AT not to wait until the athletes attain the qualification marks for international competitions such as the Olympics, World Athletic Championships, the Commonwealth or All Africa Games through their personal efforts.
“AT should set up a camp for as many as 50 to 100 youngsters for lengthy training to so as to determine selection of a much stronger team towards any international championships,” he pointed out.
He added that although Tanzania - as usual - would send a small team to Rio, the quality of athletes in the squad was better than was the case during the 2012 London Olympics
He cited Alphonce Felix and Fabian Joseph as among the people to watch this time around. Said Makula has also shown a lot of improvement in recent months.
“For someone (Makula) who is still progressing, you never know. Rio Games could be his rise to the top”, he said, describing Sara Ramadhani as a young lady who has fought hard to reach the level that makes her eligible for the Olympics.
“No matter, the outcome in Rio, Tanzania needs to start afresh. We need apt plans for the next 2020 Tokyo Olympics,” said Gidabuday who spent 20 years in the US from 1993 competing in various athletic races and winning many titles in the US and elsewhere in the world. The only time Tanzania had the best performance was during the 1980 Olympics in Moscow - boycotted by many Western countries and those sympathetic to them during the cold war era. The country managed silver medals in athletics through Filbert Bayi and Suleiman Nyambui.
