AfricaPress-Tanzania: ATHLETICS Tanzania (AT) has set confirmation deadline to regions for the forthcoming National Athletics Championship set to be staged next month in Dar es Salaam.
AT Information and Communication Officer, Tullo Chambo said the body has picked August 25th 2020, as the deadline for confirmation to all regions, wishing to participate in the championship.
The two-day championship which was earlier scheduled to take place from August 15th to 16th this year at the Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam will now be staged from September 5th to 6th this year at the same venue, which was recently renamed in honour of the third phase President the late Benjamin Mkapa.
Chambo has also urged all 31 regions which have been invited and are looking forward to take part in the championship, to fill their confirmation in a special form to be provided by the AT.
Speaking about preparations for the championship, Chambo said that everything was on track and that todate, only Mara region out of 31 has confirmed their participation in the event.
He said others are finalising their regional trials which aim at picking their respective regional squads, saying they are expected to make their confirmation soon.
Initially, the AT had planned the event to be staged in May but it was rescheduled to August due to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, which also forced the government to suspend all sports activities on March 17th this year, before lifting the suspension on June 1st this year.
According to Chambo, the World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations (both abbreviated as IAAF), directed all its members to conduct their national championship within August after initial events of most of its members were disrupted due to the outbreak of the pandemic.
This year’s national championship secured support from the Tanzania Olympic Committee (TOC), after the AT requested the committee to assist the facilitation of the two-day championship.
TOC will facilitate the championship with support from Olympic Solidarity (OS) and Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA).
AT needed 100m/-to stage this year’s championship, which is expected to attract at least 3 00 athletes from all regions in Mainland Tanzania and Z anzibar, who will compete in various field and track events.
The events to be competed for are 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5,000m and 10,000m races, Relay for 100X 4 and 4X 400 events, long jump, triple jump, Discus, Shot Put as well as Javelin throws.
