‘Team Tanzania’ jetted off to Glasgow, Scotland exuding confidence that they will excel at the 20th edition of the Commonwealth Games, set for July 23 to August 3, this year.
A squad of 36 athletes drawn from boxing, athletics, cyclists, judokas, table tennis, swimming and wrestling has been ordered by President Jakaya Kikwete to win medals for the country. The president reminded the athletes that they are deeply indebted to the nation and the only way to appease it is to win medals.
With this burden in their shoulder, the national amateur boxing team has promised to win medals in Glasgow. Tanzania boxers have failed to punch their way to glory in the last three editions of the Club Games — in Manchester, UK 2002, Melbourne, Australia in 2006 and New Delhi, India in 2010.
The last time Tanzania won a medal in boxing was in 1998 when Michael Yombayomba scooped gold in Kulala Lumpur, Malaysia. Titus Simba won a silver at the 1970 Games in Edinburg, Scotland, which was the first ever medal for Tanzania in the Commonwealth Games.
And the boxers are targeting to end this sad scenario at the Glasgow Games when they step into the ring under a new scoring system.
Speaking to the ‘Daily News’, team coach Jonas Mwakipesile was confident that the boxers are well prepared for the quadrennial event, saying further that they are aiming at returning home with some medals to celebrate.
“Every athlete’s aim is to win a medal and that’s what we will be going for and we believe we can do better this time round,” he said, adding that it was the best time to show excellent results of their preparations to Tanzanians. The eight Glasgow-bound boxers had a chance to train in China and Turkey.
The training has helped the boxers to improve endurance and stamina. Mwakipesile said it was good for the team as they received another best experience for their career under well trained experts and high tech facilities.
Boxers representing the country at the Games are Ezra Paulo, Emelian Patrick, Fabian Gaudence, Nasser Mafuru, Joseph Martini, Selemani Kidunda and Mohamed Hakimu.
For his part, Kidunda who is also ‘Team Tanzania’ captain, said that Tanzanians should be aware that their team is going to Glasgow not for holidays but for work that will bring prestige to the whole nation. “We know, we shoulder a big responsibility to bring joy to Tanzanians by bringing medals to them.
The fact which must be understood clearly is that we are going to work to the best of our abilities and try our level best to bring happiness to this country,” he said.
His team-mate, Hakimu, who was in China for training, said they had learnt different styles including ‘Chinese style’ which was quite different from the old fashion of fighting.
“In the past, we learnt a style which is well known as ‘Cuban Style’, which basically consists of 20 rounds of shadowboxing and only three rounds of everything else like heavy bag sparring,” he said.
He said in Cuban style, the boxers were able to confront opponents at a considerable distance but the Chinese style helps a fighter to trade punches at a much closer distance.
The boxers are hoping that they will thrive under the new ‘10 point-Must’ scoring system introduced by the Association of International Amateur Boxing (AIBA) in January, this year, which is similar to professional boxing.
Under the new system, three judges will score the rounds out of 10 before aggregating their tally to decide the winner.
By FRANK KIMARO, Tanzania Daily News