Tanzania Olympic Committee (TOC) secretary general, Filbert Bayi
By Joseph Mchekadona
Tanzania Olympic Committee (TOC) secretary general Filbert Bayi has is pessimistic if local athletes will meet qualifications for next year’s Olympic Games to be staged in Rio de Janeiro.
Bayi who returned recently from the All African Games staged in
Congo, said the way local athletes performed at the Games, he doubts if
they meet can qualifier marks for the Olympics.
The former international runner, urged the national sports (NSA)
associations and the government to immediately begin preparation for the
2016 Rio Olympics, he said NSA should start looking for qualifying
events.
“The All Africa Games is not a qualification competition; but our
athletes failed miserably, their impact was not felt, you know that the
All Africa Games is not a world standard competition where you measure
the depth and that is why best African athletes are not ranked among the
best in the world.
“This is because for them, All Africa Games does not signify
anything since it is not a qualifier event for the Olympics, so do you
think our athletes who failed at the Games can make it to the
Olympics?”, he queried.
At the Games, Tanzania was represented by boxers, Paralympics
athletes, women football, swimmers and judokas, but they both returned
home empty handed.
“I was there in Brazzaville where I watched some final events, I
did not visit Tanzania team village to know their problems, but from
what I know, we are very far behind, we need to step up performance”, he
said.
He also blamed some NSA for failing to have basics, saying it’s
only Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) which has good developmental
structures.
Bayi said without basics and failure by NSA to organise strong and
virile events which can act as a foundation for the discovery of new
stars, who could be nurtured for national teams, the country sports is
doomed.
“I said TFF has strong basics in youth teams of Under 15, 17 and 20
, but all these associations they lack that, I ask how can you develop
without a base”, he said.
The TOC official also takes a swipe at some National Sports
Associations who select many athletes to join the camp in preparation
for international games regardless of their financial ability.
“I think it is good to use the available resources prudently, the
problem with associations which deal with individual sports is that they
sometimes want to send many athletes against their financial ability,
,your capacity is to train two athletes why inviting many athletes,
train only those two so that they cannot lack anything in training”, he
said.
However, some critics said the team Tanzania could have not
performed well at the event due to many other things, major among them
being the team did not have enough preparations as there were no
residential camps.
The government advised NSA to prepare for their athletes training as it (government) has no money for camping.
The critics also said Tanzania athletes traveled to Brazzaville in
separate batches while on some occasions a trip will be cancelled in the
last minutes; they say this affected them psychologically.
The top ten countries which won medals at the games were Egypt,
Nigeria, South Africa, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritius, Congo, Cameroon,
Kenya and Senegal.
SOURCE:
THE GUARDIAN
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