AfricaPress-Tanzania: TANZANIA Olympic Committee (TOC), has chipped in to support this year’s National Athletics Championship, scheduled to be staged at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam this August.
Athletics Tanzania (AT), unveiled recently that the TOC has committed to support the championship.
The championship was initially scheduled to take place last month, but it was postponed due to the 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.
AT Information and Communication Officer, Tullo Chambo said yesterday that TOC’s move came after they requested them to assist the facilitation of the two-day championship to be staged from August 15th to 16th 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 their initial events of its most members were disrupted due to the outbreak of the pandemic.
However, Chambo said that TOC will facilitate the championship with support from Olympic Solidarity (OS) and Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA).
AT needs 100m/-to stage this year’s championship, which is expected to attract at least 300 athletes from all regions in Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar, They 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 100X4 and 4X400 events, long jump, triple jump, Discus, Shot Put as well Javelin throws.
However, TOC will not facilitate the whole 100m/-budget for the event, so AT has requested other sports stakeholders to support them, to ensure the championship is successfully staged.
AT has already sent invitations letter for the August championship to all regional athletics associations. Chambo also added that the TOC will utilise the champions to pick best athletes, who will be trained and later sent to compete for qualifications for the 2020 Olympic Games.
AT is determined to increase the number of athletes to compete in the quadrennial Games in Tokyo.
To-date only two athletes- -Alphonce Simbu and Failuna Matanga have met the Olympic Games qualification standards.
TOC has disclosed that they have decided to support the AT because of the good history of the sport in the country.
