Athletics Tanzania (AT): IAAF

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World Athletics makes commitment to a cleaner, greener, more equitable world

April 18, 2020

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe, Sustainable Development Advisory Group Chair Sylvia Barlag and HSH Prince Albert II are shown the air quality monitor by Kunak Technologies CEO Javier Fernandez Huerta (Philippe Fitte) © Copyright

World Athletics has today launched its Sustainability Strategy, which has a central goal of making the organisation carbon neutral by 2030. The strategy addresses global issues that pose a threat to the quality of our lives, using the power of sport and athletics to create a better world for communities.

The organisation will embrace sustainability principles and practices within its operations, its Member Federations and the organisation of future World Athletics Series events.

The ten-year strategy is designed to deliver tangible benefits across environmental, social and economic sustainability.

Among its commitments, World Athletics will reduce its carbon output by ten percent each year, switch to 100 percent renewable energy at its headquarters this year, introduce a sustainable procurement code and travel policy and develop best practice guides for its 214 Member Federations and its event organisers.

The strategy is divided into six pillars, each of which contain actions and targets for the organisation to pursue.

Some of the key components are:

Leadership in sustainability

Produce best practice guides for Member Federations and World Athletics Series event organisers
Embed sustainability principles in permit and licensing programmes
Align and embed sustainability goals into partnership agreements
Identify and engage our partners around the sustainability programme

Sustainable production and consumption

At headquarters, switch to 100 percent renewable energy
Implement comprehensive waste management system targeting reduction and reuse
Embed responsible procurement for all World Athletics activities and sanctioned events

Climate change and carbon

Reduce carbon footprint by ten percent each year to reach goal of carbon neutrality by 2030
Implement a sustainable travel policy reducing travel and building local capacity
All sanctioned events to commit to carbon neutrality targets

Local environment and air quality

Working with partners, establish low emission zones around athletics arenas
Maximise local economic impact around events by supporting local businesses
Develop a toolkit for improving air quality.
Air quality targets to be understood, set and monitored to protect runners and athletes
Air quality emissions to be included in equipment and venue standards.

Global equality

All geographic areas to have recognised opportunity pathways for both genders in all professions in athletics across athletes, coaches, technical officials, administrators
Build gender capacity with annual female leadership seminars conducted in all Areas

Diversity, accessibility and wellbeing

Protect athlete welfare with standardised basic health checks for all athletes before they compete in international events.
Ensure headquarters and other facilities are fully accessible
Ensure diverse workforce and fair treatment of staff and those working at and on our events, and for our suppliers and partners

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said it was important for the organisation to make a commitment to a better future for coming generations.

“In the modern world, it has become apparent that our athletes and fans expect more from us than good governance of our sport. They also expect us to be a good global citizen, to take a leadership role in issues that affect the wider world and their communities. Sustainability is one of the great global challenges. We want to do our part to make this a better world and contribute to a cleaner, greener, more equitable future for everyone.

“We started on this path a couple of years ago when we made a commitment to assist the global campaign for improved air quality, and began installing air quality monitors in stadiums around the world, but it’s time for us to do more and I’m delighted to launch this roadmap for our organisation and our sport over the next decade. We have already ticked one item off the list, by switching to 100 percent renewable energy at our headquarters this year, and our ambition is to be a leader in organising sustainable events as we go forward.”

World Athletics

SOMA ZAIDI

Giniki - Runner Who Has Sights Set on Glory

May 22, 2016

Riadha

Emmanuel Giniki Gisamoda in China Recently

Emmanuel Giniki stands tall among the excelling local runners who have weathered the storm to stay at the helm of Tanzania's athletic platform. Born in 1988 in a poor family based in Hanang, Katesh, Manyara, Giniki's running talent can be traced back since his childhood at the Jorodom Primary School.

"I am coming from a poor family where we sometimes went without food. That was our daily life. This is what encouraged me to train hard and I am determined to use athletics to bring my family out of poverty," he said during an exclusive interview with The Citizen.

After completing primary school education in 2007, Gikini joined Ganana Secondary School in Hanang where his running talent was revealed. "I used to compete and win many championships to the extent that teachers and most of my friends suggested that I better drop lessons to concentrate on athletics," he said.

A few years later, he joined the Arusha-based Shahanga Sports Club where his talent was exposed to high profile trainers and other runners. "There I began to learn the game more professionally under the tutelage of widely experienced trainers," he noted.

Giving a brief over his experience, the 21-year-old marathoner who has so far scooped several medals and honours at different local tournaments, said the country was blessed with many talents, but there was no progressive plan to recruit and groom them.

"Athletics Tanzania (AT) must now prepare a good programme that will deal with identifying and recruiting young talented runners from the grassroots. Tanzania has been endowed with many good runners but the athletics body is not serious enough," he revealed.

Giniki who is inspired by England runner, Mo Farah, remains optimistic that Tanzania will one day outsmart leading countries like Ethiopia if the government started supporting the runners seriously.

"Athletes face several setbacks, ranging from poor training gear, lack of high skilled trainers as well as financial capacity to feature in different international tournaments," he noted.

OLYMPIC GAMES PREPS

Giniki is, however, worried over the Tanzanian runners' performance in the forthcoming 31st edition of the world's top crowd-puller event, the Olympic Games, due to poor preparations and financial constraints.

He said for Tanzania to compete highly in the games, there was a need for long-term preparations.

He disclosed that most of the countries that excel in the Games have a good tendency of preparing their runners a year before.

"I don't have any doubts with the runners who will represent the county in the Rio De Jenairo event, but my worries are due to the poor preparations. There is no training gear so far, apart from the fact that they need several international trials before the event", he asserted.

SOMA ZAIDI

Rio Olympics preps in disarray

February 13, 2016

TOC

Kutoka kushoto wa tano ni Said Makula (0957) aliefikisha viwango vya kushiriki Olimpiki nchini Brazil mwaka huu

Tanzania Olympics Committee (TOC) says it has no money to organise a camp for athletes ahead of the Brazil Olympics.

Speaking yesterday, TOC secretary general Filbert Bayi said the committee has communicated the development to sports associations whose athletes will compete at the Rio Games.

He said TOC has asked the sports associations to source for their own money and organise camping to prepare for the Games.

This is a big blow to financially constrained sports associations as they depend on TOC to organise camping for 30 days and another one or two weeks in the Olympic Games host nation.

The camp in host nation helps athletes to acclimatise with the weather and in most cases it is done at the village where the team camps.

“For now we don’t have money to organise a local camp and even that of one week in the Olympics host nation, we have communicated to all sports associations on this development, unless some miracle happens then we can organise the camp.

For now there is no money, I think sports associations have to follow what Athletics Tanzania (AT) has done by organising their camp early”, he said.

This is not the first time that Tanzania athletes will travel to international event without proper camping.

At the last year All Africa Games staged in Brazzaville, local athletes did not have any camp after the government advised NSA to prepare for their athletes training as it (government) had no money for camping.

Meanwhile, eight athletes have reported for athletics camp in Siha District of West Kilimanjaro to prepare for the Brazil Olympics.

Athletics Tanzania’s (AT) acting secretary general Ombeni Zavala said the athletes will be at the camp up to August when they will depart for Brazil to compete at the Games.

She named the athletes as Fabian Joseph, Fabian Nelson, Alphonce Felix, Saidi Makula, Emmanuel Gimiki, Joseph Panga and Gabriel Gerard. They are being trained by coaches Francis John and Zakaria Barie.

Zavala said only Alphonce Felix and Saidi Makula qualified for the Brazil Olympic Games, but the aim of AT is to see many athletes qualify for the Games.

“Currently its only two athletes who qualified for this year Brazil Olympics, we hope the other athletes at the camp would meet the qualifier marks. Those who will not qualify for the Olympics will use this month’s Killimanjaro International Marathon to qualify or compete at other international events recognised by the IAAF ”, she said.

She said as AT, they encourage athletes to compete at top international event as the shows give local athletes more exposure which helps them to excel at global platform such as the Olympic Games.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

SOMA ZAIDI

Olympic movement shows support for Rio 2016

February 05, 2016

TOC

IOC President Thomas Bach stressed the importance of the Olympic family working together (Photo: Getty Images/Matt King)

IOC and International Federations working with Rio 2016 to find intelligent solutions to budgetary challenges.

“The Olympic movement will show solidarity with the Brazilians in order to achieve a balanced budget, which will then serve as a solid foundation for the next six months to have finally successful and excellent Olympic Games in Brazil,” said Thomas Batch, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) this week.

On Monday and Tuesday (1-2 February) Rio 2016 met with representatives of the 28 Olympic summer sport International Federations (IFs) in a joint effort to deliver efficiencies in the budget for the Olympic Games. In line with the IOC’s Agenda 2020 reforms, strategies for maintaining a balanced budget were the focus of the meeting at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The parties worked together to find creative solutions that will allow organisers to deliver successful Games on a responsible budget. With Brazil currently in recession, sustainability and legacy are key to all Games planning and the Rio 2016 organising committee is committed to using zero public money.

The meeting was part of the ongoing close dialogue between the IOC, Rio 2016 and the IFs. Rio 2016 President Carlos Nuzman led the Rio 2016 delegation and was accompanied by his executive director of sport Agberto Guimarães and sport director Rodrigo Garcia. The IOC was led by Olympic Games executive director Christophe Dubi and sport director Kit McConnell.

Among the ideas designed to increase efficiency that were presented to the IFs were shared working areas and more cost-effective transport solutions.

Matt Smith, executive director of the International Rowing Federation (FISA), told Inside that Game that the meeting was “really useful for us all” before adding “we have to be very efficient and make the Games financially viable for the future”.

The process is in line with the IOC's Agenda 2020 reform. within which promoting sustainability in all aspects of the Olympic Games is a key component.

SOMA ZAIDI

IAAF's response to allegations of blood doping in athletics

December 04, 2015

Matukio

The IAAF has sent a detailed response to the allegations that it has "idly sat by" and tolerated rampant blood doping in athletics, ahead of next week’s appearance by the IAAF before the UK Parliament’s Culture Media and Sport Select Committee’s inquiry into ‘Blood Doping in Athletics’.
The document, which is now published on the IAAF website here, demonstrates that:

- The IAAF has consistently been a pioneer in the war against blood doping in sport, using every tool available to it to catch blood dopers in athletics and with considerable success.

The Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) began in 2009. The IAAF in consultation with WADA was the first sports organisation to adopt the ABP across the whole sport.

- Prior to 2009, the IAAF screened nearly 8000 blood samples for potential markers of blood doping, and followed up with thousands of urine tests to detect the presence of rEPO.

That strategy, which continues to this day, has led to 145 athletes being caught with rEPO in their systems (including Rashid Ramzi, one of the athletes highlighted by The Sunday Times), and another eight athletes (including the four Russian athletes highlighted by The Sunday Times) being caught and banned for manipulating the tests in an attempt to evade detection.

The IAAF has created ABP profiles for more than 5500 athletes, based on more than 13,000 ABP samples collected from those athletes. As a result, 56 more athletes have been caught and sanctioned for blood doping with 13 further cases pending, and 12 more currently in the pipeline. This is significantly more ABP cases than every other anti-doping organisation in the world put together.

- ARD/The Sunday Times and their consultants cannot deny any of this. Instead, they argue that the abnormal values found in the blood screening tests conducted by the IAAF from 2001-2009 (i.e., pre-ABP) were not just indicators of potential doping that could be used to target expensive urine tests for rEPO, but instead constituted "compelling evidence" of blood doping so stating the IAAF should have charged the athletes based on that evidence alone, without the need for any further testing.

- The IAAF fundamentally disagrees with that assertion, and it is not alone. WADA and Dick Pound, the chair of its Independent Commission, have also stated clearly and unequivocally that "no test data derived from the IAAF database prior to the adoption of the ABP in 2009 can be considered to be proof of doping. It would be reckless, if not libellous, to make such an allegation. The reported values may be suspicious and lead to targeted testing of the athletes involved, but nothing more could be done with the information".

- In the response published today, the IAAF sets out in detail why that is correct, and why the contrary stance of ARD/The Sunday Times and their retained consultants lacks any scientific or legal basis.

The results of testing of an athlete's blood samples are only reliable, and may only be fairly compared with the results from other samples in that athlete's profile, if all of the samples are collected in strict compliance with stringent and standardised sample collection, transport and analysis procedures.

If not, any apparent differences in results from one sample to the next have no scientific validity. Those standardised procedures were only introduced in 2009, with WADA's adoption of the ABP programme.

The samples collected by the IAAF before that date were not collected pursuant to those procedures. Therefore, while they could be used to help focus expensive urine testing for rEPO on potentially suspicious athletes, they certainly could not be used as evidence of doping in and of themselves.

- Furthermore, even if the pre-2009 values had been reliable and fairly comparable with each other, deviations in those values could be caused not by blood doping but rather by innocent factors (such as altitude, exercise, medical conditions, etc.). Therefore, an abnormal value is not evidence of doping, which is a classic 'prosecutor's fallacy.

Instead, information has to be gathered so experts can assess and seek explanations for the abnormal readings an athlete's profile. Only if they conclude that the abnormal reading is highly likely to be due to blood doping, and that no other potential explanation is plausible, can blood doping charges be brought.

But these potentially confounding factors were only fully identified when the ABP programme was adopted by WADA in 2009. Prior to that time the necessary information was not collected by anyone to enable these other factors to be assessed.

As a result, no charge could ever be brought based on the pre-2009 data, for fear of mistaking an abnormal reading for blood doping when it could have been entirely innocent.

- Paula Radcliffe's case illustrates the point perfectly. She has been publicly accused of blood doping based on the gross misinterpretation of raw and incomplete data. When all of the necessary information is considered, however (as the WADA ABP protocols require), there are clearly plausible explanations for the values in her profile that are entirely innocent.

For example, in two of the cases highlighted by The Sunday Times, the samples were collected immediately after competition (when dehydration causes a decrease in plasma concentration, and so an increase in reported haemoglobin concentration, even though there has been no increase in red blood cells).

Any competent scientist would therefore immediately conclude that they should be disregarded. Furthermore, the IAAF followed up by testing Ms Radcliffe's urine samples for rEPO, and her blood samples for evidence of blood transfusions, and all of those tests came back negative.

The IAAF is not complacent about doping in its sport. It will continue to use every tool at its disposal to fight doping and protect clean athletes, and hopes that investigative journalists will continue to assist it by unearthing evidence of cheating for it to follow up.
The IAAF also acknowledges the important role of the media in holding it and other anti-doping organisations to account in their efforts to fight doping.
The IAAF cannot sit idly by while public confidence in its willingness to protect the integrity of its sport is undermined by allegations of inaction/incompetence that are based on bad scientific and legal argument. Instead it has both a right and an obligation to set the record straight.

---

The IAAF will respond separately to the allegations in the report issued by the Independent Commission on 9 November 2015, that high-ranking officials at or associated with the IAAF corruptly delayed the prosecution of up to eight ABP cases in 2012, thereby allowing certain athletes to compete at the London Olympics who should instead have been provisionally suspended from the sport.

SOMA ZAIDI

Bid process opened for reallocation of 2016 IAAF events

December 04, 2015

Matukio

An accelerated bidding process has been opened today for the reallocation of two 2016 IAAF World Athletics Series competitions, with the decisions due on 7 January 2016.

Following confirmation last week of the full suspension of the Russian IAAF Member Federation ARAF, the process is now underway to reallocate the 2016 IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships (Cheboksary, RUS) and 2016 IAAF World U20 (Junior) Championships (Kazan, RUS) which were originally awarded to ARAF.

IAAF Member Federations have been formally invited to submit applications to host these two events, it being understood that this will be an accelerated process to ensure maximum time available for the successful hosts to organise these two championships.

TIMELINE (for both events)

7 December 2015: Member Federations interested in this opportunity are to submit a Letter of Interest signed by the Member Federation and the authorities of the proposed Host City.

7 December 2015: IAAF sends Application Form and additional documentation to Member Federations submitting a Letter of Interest.

10 December 2015: Conference Call for candidates (IAAF to provide supplementary information and to answer questions).

22 December 2015: Completed Bid Applications to be submitted to the IAAF.

23 December 2015 to 6 January 2016: Review of Applications by the IAAF.

7 January 2016: Electronic vote by the IAAF Council on Host Venue. Successful candidate city announced.

SOMA ZAIDI

Mfahamu Mwanariadha Wetu (Profile ) : John Yuda Msuri

November 16, 2015

Riadha

Profiles : John Yuda Msuri

John Msuri YUDA, Tanzania (5000/10,000/road/cross country)

Born 9 June 1979, Kwapakacha, Kondoa District, Dodoma Region, Tanzania

Height: 1.59m; Weight: 56kg

Former mechanic, apprenticed Dodoma; lives mainly in Dodoma; trains in Iten, Kenya, and Boulder, Colorado; finished primary at Mlimwa Primary Sch., Dodoma.

Native language: Mrangi (same as 1980s marathon great Juma Ikangaa); eldest of two children of father's first of three wives; father a farmer with 15 acres of maize and ground nuts.

Manager: KIMbia Athletics Coach: Dieter Hogen

John Yuda emerged as a world-class runner in a remarkably short time. In the summer of 2000, while men who were to become his rivals were preparing for the Sydney Olympics, Yuda was still a part-time amateur runner, training in the morning before going to work as a mechanic, and repeatedly pleading to be accepted into Tanzania's most elite running club. His first overseas trip was to the 2001 World Cross Country Championships and, six months after that, he was a bronze medallist in the World Half-Marathon. By the end of 2002, he had won medals in major international championships in cross country, road racing and track.

Yuda has invested some of the winnings from his once-prolific racing, mainly in his hometown of Dodoma, where he has bought two cars and a house that he sometimes shares with his wife, Hawa Hussein, an international runner of longer experience than Yuda himself. She was 20th at 4km in the 1998 World Cross and 6th at 5000m in the 1998 Commonwealth Games.

Other investments include a football team in the Tanzanian professional league (not doing well at present) and a rudimentary music studio in the running centre of Arusha, where young musicians whom Yuda supports can practise and record. He has also built a two-story commercial establishment in Arusha that opened as a small hotel and tavern in 2004. His musical protégés supply the entertainment.

Yuda began running in primary school, with regional success in 5000m. Later, inspired by radio reports of Kenyan triumphs, he started training in the early mornings before going to work as mechanic. Attaching himself to a local training group, he advanced through regional meets to the 2000 National Championships, finishing 5th at 5000m and 10,000m.

Yuda twice approached Max Iranqhe, the leader of elite, at the residential running club in Arusha, for permission to join and was admitted provisionally in July 2000 to train for Mt. Meru Marathon in August. Finishing 5th (2:20:12), he then joined the club for cross country training. After finishing 25th in the 2001 12km Kenyan Cross Country Championships, Yuda proceeded to the World Cross Country Championships in Ostend, where he placed 14th at 4km and 27th at 12 km.

Signed by KIM management in Ostend, Yuda was then taken around Europe for road races. On successive weekends, he won 10 km races in Poznan and Wurtzburg, then finished 2nd to Rodgers Rop's world best at 25 km in Berlin, recording 1:13:56, then No3 all-time. Moving to the US for a month, Yuda won three road races and, after more road success in Australia, he won the Tanzanian Half Marathon and finished 3rd (60:12) behind Haile Gebrselassie and Tesfaye Jifar in World Half Marathon Championships, in Bristol.

Yuda prepared for the 2002 World Cross Country Championships, in Dublin, with six cross country races in Europe, winning four. In Dublin, he took silver behind Kenenisa Bekele at 12km. Six weeks later, after two road wins and 4th at Stramilano Half-Marathon, he collected his second successive bronze in the World Half Marathon, this time in Brussels behind Paul Kosgei and Jaouad Gharib. He won Tanzanian championship at 10,000m and launched his international track career with a pair of national records in Golden League races (13:03.62 for 5000m in Rome; 27:06.17 for 10,000m in Brussels) and a bronze at 10,000m (27:45.78) in the Manchester Commonwealth Games behind Wilberforce Talel and Kosgei. Yuda closed season with superb Half Marathon PR (60:02), finishing second behind Kosgei in Great North Run.

A series of injuries in 2003 raised questions about Yuda’s heavy schedule (two dozen races) in 2002. Slight injury kept him out of World Cross Country, and after winning Stramilano (60:25) in April, he sustained another injury switching from road to track training. He did not quite regain fitness in time for the World Championships in Paris (12th in 10,000m, 27:56.21) but two weeks later, in Brussels, came within four seconds of PB (27:09.83). Then, in October, he injured a hamstring in the closing stages of World Half Marathon, in Vilamoura, Portugal, and limped across the line in 5th (61:13).

After being involved in devastating car wreck during the 2003 Christmas holidays, but escaping with minor injuries, Yuda embarked on rigorous training for the 2004 London Marathon, skipping cross country altogether. London, billed inaccurately as his marathon debut, went well for 37 km as Yuda shared lead with eventual 1st and 2nd placers Evans Rutto and Sammy Korir at 2:06 pace. But conditions were slippery, and when all three went down in a collision at 23 miles, Yuda suffered the worst of it. The hamstring flared and he limped in 10th in 2:10:13.

A similar fate befell him in the Athens Olympic 10,000m, in which he was tripped, injured a hip, and was forced to drop out. He trained cautiously for the 2004 New York City Marathon and thought himself approaching full fitness but finished a disappointing 15th in 2:18:04.

In 2005 Yuda resumed the furious racing pace of 2002, completing four 10,000m on the track (best 27:33.84 for 10th in Hengelo), two big 10 km road races (5th in World’s Best 10k, San Juan, in PB 28:17; 3rd in Edinburgh in 28:24), a 10 Miler, the Great South Run (1st in 46:55), a couple of cross country and odd distance races, five Half Marathons (most notably, 2nd at Stramilano in 60:25 and 6th at the World Championships in Edmonton in 62:11) and a marathon (a DNF in Seoul).

Perhaps as a result of that punishing schedule, 2006 was comparatively inactive, with a DNF in the Boston Marathon and a lowly 19th in Chicago (2:15:23).

In 2007 however, Yuda once again has been racing as if there’s no tomorrow, almost entirely on the road. He has run, among others, five 10 km races, including 5th place finishes in both the World’s Best (28:38) and Crescent City (28:37) and 3rd in the Beach to Beacon (PB 27:55), two 12 km races (2nd in Spokane in 34:19 and 5th in the Bay to Breakers in 35:20), a 10 miler (2nd in the Cherry Blossom in 46:04), four Half Marathons (including 6th in Ras Al Khaimah in 60:39 behind Samuel Wanjiru’s unratified world record 58:53, and 3rd in Philadelphia in 62:05, just three seconds off the lead) and the grueling Mombasa World Cross Country.

Yearly Progression

5000m/10,000m/Half Marathon: 2001 - --/--/60:12; 2002 - 13:03.62 NR/ 27:06.17 NR/ 60:02; 2003 - 13:34.81/27:09.83/60:25; 2004 - —; 2005 - --/27:33.84/60:25; 2006 - --; 2007 - --/--/60:39.

Personal Bests

5000m: 13:03.62 (2002)
10,000m: 27:06.17 (2002)
10km: 27:55 (2007)
Half Marathon: 1:00.02
Marathon: 2:10:13 (2004).

Career Highlights

2001        World Cross Country Championships (14th Short Course; 27th Long Course)
2001   3rd, World Half Marathon Championships
2002   2nd, World Cross Country Championships (Long Course)
2002   3rd, World Half Marathon Championships
2002   3rd, Commonwealth Games 10,000m
2002   2nd, Great North Run Half Marathon
2003   1st, Stramilano Half Marathon
2003 12th, World Championships 10,000m
2003   5th, World Half Marathon Championships
2005   2nd, Stramilano Half Marathon
2005   6th, World Half Marathon Championships

SOMA ZAIDI