The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
Majuto Omary
28 December 2011
Dar es Salaam — While many Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes have their 2012 Olympic Games places confirmed, Tanzania is still dillydallying.
Tanzania Athletics (AT) confirmed to The Citizen yesterday that only a 5,000-metre athlete, Zakia Mrisho had secured her London Games ticket.
Now, with five months of fighting for qualifying marks remaining, Tanzania faces a race against time to get many representatives to the London event, which will start on July 27.
AT secretary general Suleiman Nyambui admitted that Tanzania was lagging behind and cited lack of funds as a major hindrance.
Nyambui said his association does not have sufficient funds to enable the local runners to seek the qualifying standards in IAAF-recognised championships.
“We are proud of Zakia’s success. AT would have liked to have many athletes with London Games tickets by now, but it’s impossible because AT does not have enough cash to facilitate them,” the legendary runner said.Nyambui said Zakia obtained her Olympics marks during the 13th IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea on September 2.
The Singida-born athlete, was not so impressive as she clocked 15:18:81 minutes to finish 11th, but her time was within the Olympics range.Zakia, who spends most of her time training and competing in Italy, was the only Tanzanian who featured in the World Championships.
“I hope that she will keep on training to improve her time, it’s not bad, but many athletes can beat it,” Nyambui said.
The long serving AT official called on other athletes to compete in various races in order to obtain the marks for the eagerly awaited July event.
“The IAAF-recognised competitions cost plenty of cash, and our cash-strapped association can’t afford to pay for every athlete, therefore I urge them to compete in as many events as possible so as to get the marks,” he advised.Nyambui said every runner works under a manager, thus they were responsible for finding competitive events.
“Our runners work under individual managers, thus they have no option but to fight for their athletes,” he added. Nyambui and Fibert Bayi remain to be the only Tanzanian athletes who won medals at the Olympics.Bayi and Nyambui won silver medals at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow in 3000m steeplechase and 5,000m, respectively.
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