TZ athletes seek to win top honours in Denmark

Arusha. Tanzania’s preparations for the 2019 World Cross Country Championship and next year’s Tokyo Olympics have started in earnest.

“We will ensure our athletes train well and win medals in major international competitions,” said Athletics Tanzania (AT) president Wilhelm Gidabuday early this week.

He was speaking to reporters after the signing of a Sh150 million sponsorship deal with the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA).

He said although AT’s focus after the generous support from the conservation agency was on the Summer Olympics and World Cross Country Championship, other athletics competitions would also receive priority.

Already 22 runners picked to represent the country in the World Cross Country competition slated for March 30 in Aarhus, Denmark, have assembled for residential training.

Gidabuday said NCAA will meet the training costs of the athletes following the Sh150m Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the two sides this week.

The funds would also cover what the AT boss described as ‘early training for next year’s Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

According to him, the runners will train under the national athletic coach, Meta Petro, who has promised to do everything to ensure the athletes excelled.

The Tanzania team of 22 runners and five officials will leave for Aarhus, Denmark on March 27 ready for the World Cross Country championship.

Meanwhile, Tanzania has a chance to win a medal in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, says former Japan’s star athlete Naoko Takahasi.

Takahasi, a Japanese female who won her country a gold medal during the Sydney Olympics in 2000, said she was seeing prospects of Tanzania winning a medal in athletics next year.

“I am seeing prospects because of the level of enthusiasm among sports men and women in Tanzania,” she said.

Takahashi, who is now an ambassador of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), revealed this during her recent visit to Tanzania to motivate the athletes on the Summer Olympics.

“It looks your athletes, especially the female runners, are upbeat ahead of the Tokyo Olympics,” she said at the Sheikh Amri Abeid Stadium when she visited them while training.

Tokyo will be hosting the Summer Olympics for the second time from July 24 to August 9, next year. It first hosted the event in 1964.

Organisers say next year’s event would be “the most innovative ever” in that it would use as many competition venues as possible, including those built for the Games in 1964.

During the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Takahashi won her country a gold medal in marathon. She holds the seventh best time in women’s marathon events.

Her four-day visit to Tanzania took her to various playing fields, including the Arusha central stadium.