Africa-Press – Tanzania. PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan has directed the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Sports to take charges of Tanzania’s preparations ahead of the next year’s Commonwealth Games.
Speaking while receiving the Queen’s Baton relay at Dar es Salaam State House, President Samia said that it was high time that the country regains it’s lost glory, after recent years of miserable performance.” We have had unpleasant participation at the games, so the ministry should from now start monitoring the preparations and make sure that we have our presence felt at the games” she said.
“The Commonwealth Games are among toughest affairs, so we need concrete preparations,” said the president. “Of what I know, Tanzania has never returned empty handed, until recently when she missed them.
“Our brother Titus Simba fought hard to win the first medal and other continued to shine for the country,” she said. “So this should raise up an alarm ahead of next games,” she added.
President Samia highlighted among other former renowned athletes, Gidamis Shahanga, Willy Isangula and Filbert Bayi for their immense participation at the Club Games that helped to heighten themselves and the country. She said the coming of Queen’s Baton should stimulate the country’s readiness for the games always billed to be tough.
The president also urged the athletes intending to take part in the games to start preparations and be good flag bearers. The Head of State also urged TOC to present to the ministry its game plans for them to be considered.
She also said that more about Tanzania’s sports participation will be discussed when she will host sports leaders as it was requested by TOC’s president, Gulam Rashid.
Earlier, the Britain’s Ambassador to Tanzania, David Concar wished Tanzania all the best at the games, taking back his memories when he as a young boy he saw Filbert Bayi winning for his break-through world record in the game held in Christchurch, New Zealand.
“Personally, before knowing Tanzania as the land of Kilimanjaro, Serengeti and Zanzibar, I knew Filbert Bayi”, he said. The Minister for Arts, Culture and Sports, Innocent Bashungwa promised the President that his ministry will work hard to make sure that Tanzania performs well at the games.
The forthcoming Commonwealth Games will be held mid next year at Birmingham, England and Tanzania, as it was tradition in the past, expected to field teams, depending on the athletes’ qualification. The country has mostly been featuring athletes in athletics, swimming, boxing and judo.
Tanzania has started taking part at the Commonwealth Games since 1966 when the games took place in Kingston, Jamaica and has since then taking part, claiming about 21 different medals to-date. According to coordinator for the baton’s arrival in the country, Henry Tandau, who is also the vice-president of the Tanzania Olympic Committee (TOC), the baton was due to be ferried to Zanzibar for other routines of historical sites to be graced by the isles president Hussein Ally Mwinyi.
The baton is on a 388-day journey covering 230,000 kilometres across all the 70 Commonwealth countries before the Commonwealth Games start mid next year in Birmingham, England. “We are proud of being part of the Commonwealth and it is an honour for our country to be visited once again by the Queen’s Baton relay,” Tandau said, disclosing that some athletes have already started preparations.
The Queen’s Baton Relay is a tradition of the Commonwealth Games that celebrates themes of diversity, community pride and the sporting values of fairness, inclusivity and perseverance. Tanzania has a proud record at the Commonwealth Games.
Its debut ‘Club Games’ was back in 1962, and local athletes have been performing impressively from 1970 through to 2006.
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