Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)
3 August 2011
TWO athletes are likely to miss the All Africa Games due in Maputo, Mozambique next month after the Athletics Tanzania (AT) failed to fulfil preliminary requirements in time for them to get accreditation.
Alphonce Felix and Fabiano Nelson are the two youngsters facing a cut, should the AT fail to process their travelling documents (passport) to enable them get accreditation and in the end, travel with the rest of the contingent to Maputo for the quadrennial games.
The duo who excelled during the recent Inter-Secondary School games in Kibaha and the National Athletics championships in Dar es Salaam, are lined up to compete in the men’s 10,000m and 5,000m races respectively during the games dubbed the African version of Olympic Games.
The Tanzania Olympic Committee (TOC) Secretary General Filbert Bayi said on Wednesday that with an exception of AT, all other sports associations sending teams to Maputo have fulfilled requirements to get accreditations.
“We have not received any information from AT concerning the pair and time for accreditation has elapsed. The AT have even not confirmed to us on where they want to set up their camp to shape up for the games,” said Bayi.
All associations sending the team to Maputo are required to pick and confirm their training camp so that the TOC and the government could pay the bills. However, Bayi said the TOC had already confirmed its contingent to the games as required by the Supreme Council for Sports in Africa.
“We and the government have done our part. We have already confirmed the contingent to the games and we expect by tomorrow the camp will start,” said Bayi.
When reached for comment, AT Secretary General Suleiman Nyambui admitted that the two runners are racing against time to secure their passport for the rest of the procedure to continue.
“As we speak the duo’s documents have already been submitted to the immigration department in Arusha to process their passport as early as we can. These are the two young stars that have just been identified from the recent events.
One of them is a student from remote area in Mbulu district Nelson (Fabian), while the other who also hails from Arusha has never been in the limelight,” said Nyambui.
However, Nyambui wondered why the TOC has not processed the accreditation for the athletes, saying the process could still continue, so long as names of the athletes have been forwarded to them.
“We submitted a list of eight people that include two coaches and six athletes that could still be used to get accreditation,” he said.
He named other athletes in the list as Basil John who will race in 800m men, Fabian Joseph and Dickson Marwa who will compete in half marathon and Cornel Bura Panga who will compete in 1,500 meters.
The athletics team will be under head coach Cuban Baro Curtis Andres and his assistant Zakaria Barie. Meanwhile Bayi said the Judo team that comprises two players will set up a camp in Zanzibar.
Judo Association of Tanzania (JATA) has named a two-man team for games who are Hamad Sheah and Andrew Thomas. They will compete in the 73 kg and 66 kg events respectively.
Bayi said the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) have picked up Msimbazi Centre as a camp for the national women soccer side Twiga Stars to set up camp for the games, while the Tanzania Amateur Netball Association , CHANETA will set up Taifa Queens camp at the Salvation Army in Dar es Salaam.
The teams going to Maputo and the number of their respective athletes in bracket are the national women’s soccer side, Twiga Stars (20), netball (16), athletics (8), boxing (6), Judo (4) and Paralympics (3).
AllAfrica – All the Time