Team Tanzania’s quest for medals at the 20th edition of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland begins on Thursday with 36 athletes looking to improve the country’s performance in the multi-sports event.
Team Tanzania will compete in six sports, namely boxing, athletics, cycling, judo, table tennis and swimming. With a total of 36 athletes, Tanzania hopes to record better result this time around following a barren run in the 2010 Games staged in Delhi, India.
Shortly before their departure, the athletes were challenged by President Jakaya Kikwete to bring back medals and all the relevant sports associations responded by oozing confidence of a better outing.
In preparation for the Glasgow Games, the country embarked on ‘sport diplomacy’ to enable its athletes to produce good results and bring in medals now and in the coming international assignments. Through the programme, almost 50 athletes and 16 coaches went for training in China, Ethiopia, Turkey and New Zealand.
With such improved groundwork, the nation expects its athletes to avoid the lapses that occurred in the previous edition of this biggest sporting event.
Tanzania did not win a medal at the 2010 Games in New Delhi, India. The athletes are said to be in high spirit and have given assurance that they would put in their best when competitions begin today. The action begins with 12 sports disciplines on menu.
They include aquatics, badminton, cycling, gymnastics, hockey, judo, lawn bowls, netball, squash, table tennis, triathlon and weightlifting.
A total of 20 gold medals will be dished out today as Team Tanzania’s cyclists, judokas and swimmers go head to head with the Commonwealth’s best. The swimming team, comprising Magdalena Moshi, Amar Gadyari, Hilary Hilary and Mariou Fomu, camped in New Zealand ahead of the Glasgow meet.
The quartet, who also represented the country in the previous Olympic and Commonwealth Games, have a wide experience and will be expected to post better performance than in the past two events.
The water quality in Strathclyde Country Park, which had been questioned ahead of the swim section of these races, was passed safe by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency in May and has been checked weekly since. The boxing team is expected to get its campaign underway tomorrow.
Tanzanian boxers have failed to punch their way to glory in the last three editions of the Club Games — in Manchester, UK in 2002, Melbourne, Australia in 2006 and New Delhi.
The last time Tanzania won a medal in boxing was in 1998 when Michael Yombayomba scooped gold in Kulala Lumpur, Malaysia and the current team is also expected to end a sad scenario at the Glasgow Games when they step into the ring under a new scoring system.
Source Tanzania Daily News