AfricaPress-Tanzania: IT might look frustrating to the athletes who have already qualified for the Olympic Games in Japan, when the games were postponed early this week, but to those who haven’t, the reschedule can offer them a second chance.
The summer Olympic Games that were earlier scheduled to start in Japan in July this year are among the biggest global level events deeply affected by the outbreak of coronavirus, and have to be postponed, because they involve big multinational gatherings.
The organisers, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have agreed to a one-year postponement of the games due to begin on July 24th this year, because of the global coronavirus pandemic and can be staged not later than the summer of 2021.
We take this opportunity to urge the athletes who have not qualified to train harder so that they join Alphonce Simbu and Failuna Matanga, the only athletes who have so far qualified for the games prior to its reschedule.
As stated by the Secretary General of Tanzania Olympics Committee (TOC) Secretary General, Filbert Bayi, the reschedule can be a blessing in disguise as it provides athletes with more training time and opportunities to meet qualification marks for the Games.
This doesn’t involve athletics alone; It can work even to other sports disciplines that are still searching for qualifications like boxing, judo and volleyball.
We would like to join the rest of the globe in a fight against the pandemic virus and share our concern about the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, and what it is doing to people’s lives and the significant impact, it is having on global athletes’ preparations for the Games.
We would, as well, like to advise athletes and sports personalities in general, while focusing on qualification; they should also continue supporting the war against it and its spread globally.
It is very important to remind sportsmen and women countrywide to get themselves fully involved in a campaign to curb the further spread of the pandemic virus as initiated by the government, since it can catch them too despite the reality that sportsmen and women are the ‘fittest’ personalities of all age groups.
We insist on the involvement of sportsmen and women since they are the majority and skilled in sporting craftsmanship, hence making them safe is making our nation safe from the deadly virus.
This is literally a matter of life and death for untold numbers of Tanzanian sportsmen and women as COVID-19 has no vaccine and no cure.
