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Tanzania runners to seek Olympic tickets in Japan
What you need to know:
- Already three runners, Alphonce Simbu, Gabriel Geay and Magdalena Shauri have secured the Olympic Games’ qualifying marks for Tanzania.
Dar es Salaam. In a bid to increase the number of athletes for the next year’s Olympic Games in Paris, France, Athletics Tanzania (AT) has selected six runners who will search for the multisport event tickets on Sunday in the Nagai marathon in Japan.
The runners are Paul Makiya, Fabian Naasi, Peter Sulle, and Sarah Ramadhan who will compete in full marathon (42 kilometres). Runners who will compete in half marathon (21 kiloemtres) are Josephat Gisemo and Transfora Mussa, according to AT secretary general Jackson Ndaweka.
Ndaweka said the runners will be under coach Samson Ramadhan and AT official Juma Ikangaa. Already three runners, Alphonce Simbu, Gabriel Geay and Magdalena Shauri have secured the Olympic Games’ qualifying marks for Tanzania.
He said the runners have trained well ahead of the event, which is expected to feature more than 500 athletes from across the world.
“All preparations are complete and we are expecting the runners to represent the country well in the event. Our aim is to see many athletes qualify for the next year’s Games scheduled from July 26 to August 11,” said Ndaweka. Besides athletics, Tanzania is expected to field women football players through Twiga Stars, swimmers, amateur boxers and judokas.
The sports are currently fighting hard to secure the qualifying marks and already the Tanzania Olympic Committee (TOC) has announced that there is no universality places for the Games.
TOC urged sportsmen and women in the country to step up their quest for qualification and not to wait universalities.
Tanzania first competed in the Olympic Games in 1964 in Tokyo, where the country was represented by four runners. Again, four sportsmen represented Tanzania in the 1968 Olympics held in Mexico City.
In the 1972 Munich Olympics in Germany, Tanzania was represented by 15 athletes, missing out on the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Canada and sending 41 athletes to the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
The country then sent 18 sportsmen to the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, USA; ten sportsmen to the 1988 Olympics in South Korea; and nine sportsmen to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Other Olympic Games in which Tanzania participated (with the number of the country’s participating sportsmen shown in brackets) were: Atlanta, 1996 (Seven sportsmen); Sydney, 2000 (Four); Greece, 2004 (Eight); Beijing, 2008 (Eight); London, 2012 (Six); and Rio de Janeiro, 2016 (Seven sportsmen).
