Simbu, Geay to pitch camp next month for Olympic Games

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania’s long distance runners are expected to pitch residential camp next month ahead of the Olympic Games scheduled to start from July 26 to August 11, this year, in Paris, France.

The runners are Alphonce Simbu and Gabriel Geay, both will compete in the men’s category and Magdalena Shauri and Sara Ramadhan, both in the women’s category.

Speaking to The Citizen yesterday, Shauri said they currently train partially in Arusha and next month they will undergo intensive training.

Shauri explained that their target is to do their best in the game by winning medals for the second time in the country’s history. 

She said it is about 44 years since the country won Olympic Games medals and that they now want to set new records.

“Our main target is to make the country proud of winning Olympic Games medals. Our last time was in 1980 through Filbert Bayi and Suleiman Nyambui, who won in the 3000 metres steeplechase and in the 5000 metres race respectively, we now need to deliver our best and win the race,” said Shauri.

She said the morale is very high, explaining that they all target to make history for Tanzanians.

Tanzania, which has won a total of two medals in the Olympic Games, first competed in the multisport event in 1964, and has featured in every Summer Olympic Games except for the boycotted 1976 Games and has never featured in the Winter Olympic Games.

This year’s Summer Olympics will also be hosted in other 16 cities spread across Metropolitan France, plus one subsite in Tahiti — an island within the French overseas country and overseas collectivity of French Polynesia.

Paris was awarded the Games at the 131st IOC Session in Lima, Peru, on September 13, 2017.