Lack of districts cycling associations has prevented the Image Professional Sports Club (IPSC) of Dar es Salaam to stage several races in Mbeya Districts and Makete, Njombe this month as earlier planned.
IP Sports Club coordinator, Abdallah Chapa, told the ‘Daily News on Saturday’ that his club is working closely with the respectively districts in Mbeya and Njombe to ensure that they have registered associations so that they can proceed with cycling development programme.
“We could not organise several races including the one which was scheduled to take place on May 1st this year in Mbeya Urban as well as Momba Cycling Challenge on May 3rd.
We also had plans to stage another race in Chunya a day later, but we could not make it, the main reasons was lack of districts associations and poor response from participants,” he said.
Chapa added that it is not an easy task to stage cycling race events without sports associations and good cooperation from leaders and participants. However, he said that they are still keen to promote the sports.
They now wait for districts to register their associations and attract good number of participants before they venture back to host the tournament.
According to the organisers, other race were planned to be held in Makete, Momba, Mbarali, Mbozi, Mbeya Rural, Ileje, Rungwe and Kyela districts between May and June this year.
Ten men’s and five women’s each from district level will qualify for Zonal tournament. He said that failure to stage the districts events in time, the tournament will also disrupt Zonal Challenge race, which is planned to be held in July.
Chapa said that they had successfully staged Cycle Challenge Promotions in Momba, Mbarali and Makete districts early this year and they were expecting quick development, but later on they have realised that without having viable districts associations their dream to promote the game will be washed down the drain.
“Our aim is still the same, but we have to wait and re-organised ourselves, some districts have shown good progress and hope soon we will be on track,” he said.
By MBONILE BURTON, Tanzania Daily News