Author: MBONILE BURTON
AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Africa Region Four Golf Competition which was to be staged this year is now at the crossroads due to a volatile situation caused by the Coronavirus threat.
The annual competition was earlier scheduled to tee off in July this year in Uganda; the country has yet to confirm it due to different levels of Covid-19 threat in the member countries.
Tanzania Golf Union’s competition secretary, Enock Magile told the africa-press in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the host Uganda has not yet confirmed weather they will be able to host the event or not.
“We are still waiting for the organisers’ word before deciding to prepare the team for the event, we are lucky that our government has ordered sports to resume which is case to other members of Region 4,” he said.
Magile added that they have already contacted Africa Golf Federation to know the fate. The federation promised to study the situation before discussing with Uganda before they had a final say. He said at the moment the situation is 50-50, means it can be either postpone or cancelled.
“We hope that organisers will inform us as soon as possible, we understand that everyone’s safety should be a priority, but we also pray situation to turn to normal to for all member countries,” he added.
Region 4 team members eligible to compete in Uganda are Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, Sudan, Comoro, Reunion, Mauritius, Seychelles and Madagascar.
He said Tanzania is keen to restore title that they lost over 19 years ago.
The national golf team coach Fadhil Nkya, who helped the national team to finish third in Burundi last year, has appealed to TGU and national team members to dig hard to enable the country win the title in the coming event.
It is obviously the coach was not satisfied with third place attained after beating hosts Burundi in the third place playoff (include two singles and foursomes) as Uganda retained the title after overpowering Kenya in the final. There were six nations in the event.
Tanzania last won the regional event in 2002 in the event held at Arusha Gymkhana Club (AGC) under senior pro, Salim Mwanyenza.
Nkya was among national team golfers who won the last title, before taking the coaching role last year from his successor and the former national team star, Hassan Kadio.
