2016 inspired Olympic medals

THE inspirational 5th place finish Tanzanian athlete, Alphonce Simbu recorded at Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro was one of the top stories of the just ended year.

Though, he didn’t win any medal, his performance inspired a nationwide quest for medals in the next games to be held in Tokyo, Japan in 2020. Various sports bodies, especially Tanzania Olympic Committee (TOC) and the football governing body (TFF) were quick to react and announced the quest for medal in the next Olympics in Tokyo.

Sports experts, especially Hans Peter Thumm, who worked in the country, reacted to the campaign by insisting big changes to be done in the country’s sports bodies and their officials. Filbert Bayi foundation, one of the notable stakeholders of athletics, launched Tokyo 2020 initiative in September, a campaign to seek medals in the 32nd Olympic Games of Japan.

The renewed campaign has already polished and shaped 7 young athletes out of 13 young runners scouted in Singida region.

Bayi said in Olympic Committee symposium that the foundation was finalising processes to recruit experienced athletic coach from Kenyan Rift Valley, the breeding area of the world’s top runners, to undertake the training task.

Supporting the move, Lwiza John Msyani, Tanzanian athlete who won gold in an Afro Asian Games and bronze in All Africa Games, said she was launching Tokyo 2020 mission in Southern Highlands, the potential area of the best middle distance runners.

She said she was among the Tanzanians who were inspired by Sambu’s feat and her athletic revive campaign focused mostly on girls. Lwiza is the only Tanzanian lady who has won two medals in global track events. He said the trials to pick potential runners will consider much time and progress of an individual in running 100m or 200m dash.

Then she added the second category of runners will involve those who clock best times in 400m, 800m and 1500m races.

But, according to her, the major focus would be 800m and 1500m which she used to compete and enabled her to win two medals. Tanzania has managed to win only two silver medals in Olympic Games. In October, Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) President Jamal Malinzi also announced the list of players of Tanzania Youth team he plans to use for Tokyo 2020 Olympic campaign.

“We plan to groom Dream Teams picked from the 2015 Airtel Rising Stars for the Tokyo Olympics,” Malinzi was quoted as saying during the closing ceremony of the Under- 17 championship at the Karume Memorial Stadium in Dar es Salaam. Positive reactions and promising strategies reportedly taking place ahead of Tokyo 2020 met strong critics from sports experts and keen observers of the Olympic games.

Hans Peter Thumm, a Germany Sports consultant has worked in the country as sports consultant who advises using the old saying: “If you want to change things you have to interfere!”

He said the massive failure in the global sports events confirm that Tanzania has definitely reached the bottom in sports among African countries and now must change its approach towards “High Performance Sport” radically.

However, he warns that TOC and associations like AT should not be happy with the Olympic philosophy, that participating is more important for Tanzania than achieving results. he adds “It is a difficult and complex task to revive “a dead man”. But the decline of athletics in Tanzania is absolutely house made.

Daily News Source