The Minister for Information, Youth, Culture and Sports Dr Fenella Mukangara hailed the just-concluded Inter-Secondary Schools Games, UMISSETA, as a huge success for the performance of athletes and their organization.
Minister Fenella Mukangara
The 35th edition of the Games climaxed on Saturday at the Kibaha Education Centre in Coast Region, with Dar es Salaam zone emerging the overall winners, after collecting a total four gold medals.
Addressing the closing ceremony, Dr Mukangara praised the “perfect” organization of the games, commending its organizers and TAMISEMI, who together with her ministry coordinate the reinstated inter-schools competition.
Dr Mukangara challenged students to excel both academically and in sports and again reminded leaders of sports associations to use the games for identification of new talents who would represent national teams in various sports disciplines.
“It is in the responsibility of sports associations to use these games to unearth new talents that can contribute massively to our nation in the coming years,” Dr Mukangara said.
She reserved special praises for the country’s Athletics governing body for tapping up 21 young athletes from the games, who represent Tanzania at the coming East and Central African junior athletics championships.
Dr Mukangara expressed government’s commitment towards improving the games and called on schools to ensure they have playing grounds, employ sports officers and allocate enough funds. The weeklong event saw Dar es Salaam outshine other zones after emerging winners in volleyball, netball, football, and handball finals.
In volleyball, Dar es Salaam boys and girls lifted the trophies in which girls thumped North Western 3-0 straight sets, while boys led by Mika Elisanga, Elifuraha Joseph and John Joseph proved to be too strong for Eastern zone after winning by 3-0 straight sets. Dar es Salaam also showed their superiority in netball after emerging 56-29 victory over Lake Zone in a one sided encounter.
Kulwa Abdallah and Jesca Jackson were unstoppable and led Dar es Salaam to clear victory. The third place went to dethroned champions Eastern zone. In football, the Dar es Salaam girls were also unstoppable after they beat Eastern zone 3-0 to lift the trophy, while in basketball Zanzibar boys lifted the trophy following a 65-56 victory over Eastern zone in the closely contested final encounter. A total of 12 zones competed in this year’s Games that attracted over 1624 students.
By CLECENCE KUNAMBI, Tanzania Daily News