[ad_1]
UNLIKE boxing which is now coming back to life on both the amateur and professional levels, the recently organized national track and field champions, track and field appears to be very close to deathbed and something big must be done to revive it.
The Benjamin Mkapa Stadium was disgustingly empty when the nationwide track meet took place last weekend, something that calls for swift intervention to save the sport from total collapse.
We had hoped athletics would be fully revived now, five years after Alphonce Simbu’s fifth-place finish at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics put the sport in the spotlight, but the national campaign has not ended almost unsuccessfully.
At first, it seemed Simbu would be alone in a campaign to revive athletics, with a heavy focus on long-distance running, in which Tanzania has excelled over the past four decades.
It was very motivating then to see Simbu influence other athletes to seriously train for world class races and four of them managed to put in promising performances, although the number was far too small compared to the overwhelming number of world class runners that Kenya produces. Ethiopia. .
As we have seen the majority of runners excel at long-distance runs and marathons, we suggest that the athletics revival campaign also prepare sprinters and middle-distance runners.
We seriously urge athletics stakeholders to come together to motivate the resurgence of the two disciplines as they can help us win medals like in the past, when Claver Kamanya won the bronze in the 400 meters and then Filbert Bayi won the first gold. of the country in the Commonwealth Games.
Samuel Mwera and Lwiza John won the country’s last medals in the 800m discipline in 2005. We applaud all those who made the recent achievement, as we once again insist on all of Tanzania to support the medalists campaign.
The glorious days of athletics that seemed not too long after Simbu’s feat now seem far out of reach as the sport appears to be stagnant.
Although it is very difficult to force Tanzanian soccer fans to take an interest in athletics, we believe that with increased awareness, advocacy and motivation from the combined efforts of all concerned, athletics can return to the golden age of Filbert Bayi and Suleiman Nyambui. , who won the only country Olympic medals 40 years ago at the games organized in Moscow.
Let us work diligently together, together we can rescue athletics.
