IT is motivating to see Tanzanian marathoners, Alphonce Simbu and Failuna Abdi, heading to Kenya to prepare effectively for Tokyo Olympic mission amid the horrifying threat of coronavirus.
To many others, the coronavirus threat could lead them to abandon the whole mission, but our gallant envoys have decided to carry on with the preparation for a medal-haul mission in Tokyo.
We urge them to take the camp seriously, and ignore the constant news on the spread of the coronavirus —an enormous public health emergency— has captured the world’s attention, hence bring profound fear to the entire sports fraternity.
As stated by an official of Athletics Tanzania (AT), Tulo Chambo, Simbu and Matanga will train at Iten’s HATC camp in order to drill for the quadrennial Games.
We all bank on them to succeed as are currently the only Tanzanian athletes who have met the Olympic Games qualification standards.
We urge others to seek qualifying marks by competing in various events outside the country before summer games takes off on July 24th.
We would like to commend AT for paying €2,852 to HATC to facilitate the duo’s residential training and accommodation.
Apart from intensive training at the camp the athletes will be offered gym, sauna, swimming and massage services.
While we insist them to keep on training, we have to wait and see what happens over the next month or two months as things there are might be measures to sort out the issue.
We would as well like to advice the athletes stay calm, be focused and work hard during their training so that they become fit for medal-hunt mission.
And the view of the IOC, the Japanese Government, the Tokyo municipal government and the Tokyo organising committee is that the Games are happening on July 24 and nothing else to make people worry.
We end up telling our envoys to bring us to Tokyo 2020 Games, fight for medals as we long to see them again after a four-decade since Filbert Bayi and Suleiman Nyambui won them in Moscow in 1980.
