Scotland conjures sweet memories for Team Tanzania boxers

Team Tanzania for this year’s Club Games which open in Glasgow, Scotland, on Wednesday next week, have promised to come back home with medals.

They are however, not sure the category of medals which range from gold to silver and bronze.

However, one thing they appear quite sure about is that this time they will certainly return home with a sizable number of medals.

The last time they performed well was in 1982 when the Commonwealth Games were held in Brisbane, Australia.

During the time, Team Tanzania returned home with five medals.

And one of their worst Club Games in history was during the New Delhi Games, in India in 2010, when they returned home without a single medal.

Given the kind of preparations they went through, this time through the massive assistance of the government, there is every possibility Team Tanzania will live to Tanzanians’ expectations.

The government threw its weight behind Team Tanzania when it paid for the athletes expensive training in China, Turkey, New Zealand and Ethiopia.

All the four countries Tanzanian athletes, boxers, wrestlers, swimmers, table tennis and judokas went to are well known in the world for the foregoing sports disciplines.

What is more, China, Ethiopia, Turkey and New Zealand are not just leading sporting nations, but they are super powers.

For instance, high altitude Ethiopia is world famous for producing top class middle and long distance runners that include the first African to win marathon in during the 1960 Rome Olympics, Bikila Abebe, who was later followed by marathon greats such as Mamo Wolde and others.

Turkey on the other hand is world famous for producing Olympic Games winners in wrestling, weight-lifting and martial art not once, but several times, during past Olympic Games, wrestling, weight-lifting and martial art international championships and other international championships.

The same thing can be said about New Zealand that has in the past produced, several times, world beaters in athletics, swimming, sprint, middle and long distance runners.

And China is an all rounder top sporting nation (with the exception of soccer) and has been finishing between second and third in the Olympics Games.

Therefore the Tanzania government’s decision to take Team Tanzania to the four, world leading sporting nations was not only well thought out, but also one of the best decisions made by the government in as many years.

When President Jakaya Kikwete told boxer and Team Tanzania Captain, boxer Suleiman Kinunda, to strive with his colleagues to bring back home medals, he had every right to make such demands as his government had given the athletes the best training they have ever had in their lives.

The government’s decision to spend the kind of money it spent in training Team Tanzania was a result of Tanzanian athletes’ past good performance in international sports competitions.

Unlike footballers, Tanzanian athletes and boxers have performed wonders in the past despite training under extremely difficult conditions.

For instance, the first medal won by Tanzania was in 1965, during the All-Africa Games held in Congo Brazzaville.

And the medal won was in javelin by Theresa Dismas who became the first Tanzanian and woman in the country’s sports history to win the medal.

It would not be five years in 1970, for Tanzania to get its second medal, a silver in the Club Games in the same country where this year’s Games start on Wednesday, in Scotland, but during the time it was in another city, Ednburgh.

And the hero was a driver and member of the Tanzania Peoples Defence Forces (TPDF),Titus Simba.

Simba won the silver medal after losing in a controversial middleweight bout that many felt he had won against Britain’s John Conteh.

Conteh later tried to woo the Tanzanian military man to join his stable in England as he prepared to turn professional, hoping that the Tanzanian could for a start serve as his sparring partner before he could later also turn into pro.

But during those days, it was not easy for a military guy to leave the army just like that for greener pastures abroad.

Simba would however, later regret for turning down Conteh’s offer as he later died a pauper.

Titus long time friend, sparring partner and himself an All-Africa Games bronze medalist in super featherweight division, Habib Kinyogoli, wept uncontrollably at Simba’s grave as he blamed everybody, including the government during the time for abandoning Simba and other sportsmen.

But that is another story that require separate treatment. For Team Tanzania Captain, Kinunda and his fellow boxers, it would not be a bad idea to spare a minute of silence for Titus Simba who became the first Tanzanian pugilist to win a boxing medal, a silver, at the Club Games in Scotland, the country he would be trying to write down his own boxing history.

Otherwise we wish him, his fellow boxers and all members of the Team Tanzania all the best in the Games.

Attilio Tagalile is a journalist/author and can be reached at [email protected] 0754279655