Bondia Wetu Ashindwa Vibaya Katika Olimpiki

(Pichani Bondia Suleiman Kidunda na Rais Jakaya Kikwete kabla ya kuelekea kwa michizeo ya Olimpiki London, Uingereza)



 
Bondia wa Tanzania, Selemani Kidunda amaeshindwa 20-7 katika raundi tatu kwneye michezo ya Olimpiki!


KIDUNDA KUNYUKANA MCHANA HUU

 Juzi Alhamisi nilipata nafasi rasmi kuingia kijiji cha Olimpiki na kuongea na maofisa, makocha na wanamichezo wetu hapa London. Pichani ni bondia wetu Suleiman Kidunda (kulia) akiwa na kocha wake mahiri, Remmy Ngabo baada ya mazoezi makali. Kidunda atanyukana na kudundana na mwanamasumbwi toka Mexico leo Jumapili mchana. Natazamia kuongea naye kesho nakuwaletea habari zaidi. Tumwombee na kumtakia kila la kheri. Tanzania oyee! Suleiman Kidunda Oyeee! Habari zaidi  http://www.kitoto.wordpress.com


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 KUTOKA THE CITIZEN:

Optimism shines through Tanzania 2012 Games team Thursday, 26 July 2012

 By Freddy Macha
The Citizen Correspondent London.

Tanzania’s athletes, coaches and officials are ready for the London Olympics opening today.Speaking exclusively to The Citizen from the Olympics village, head of the team, Hassan Jurufu, said his players are well prepared after undergoing training at Bradford University for the past two weeks.

“Everything is going fine,” Jurufu assured Tanzanians back home.The other officials accompanying the six-member squad are coaches Zachariah Gwandu (athletics), Remmy Ngabo (boxing) Sheha Mohammed (swimming), Abdullah Makala (physiotherapist), team’s administrator, Charles Nyange and Jurufu, himself.

 Swimmer Magdalena Moshi (100 metres free style), who is studying in Australia (she features for Clovercrest club in Adelaide), joined the team a week before they left Tanzania. She is the only swimmer in the team. In March, the 21-year-old’s time for 100 metres was 1:05:98 minutes and come June she had improved to 1:05:11 minutes. Current world record holder is Germany’s Britta Steffen who clocked 52.07 seconds at World Championships in Rome in July 2009.

Next is boxer Suleiman Kidunda weighing 69 kilogram’s in the light welter division. Kidunda qualified to join the team in Morocco this year.

Amongst most experienced of the lot are two Singida born long distance runners: Zakia Mrisho and Samson Ramadhan. Twenty eight-year-old Mrisho run in both 5000 metres and marathon. In 2005 she clinched a bronze medal for 3000 meters at World athletics, Monaco. The event was won by two Ethiopians (Meseret Defar and Gelete Burika). Two years ago, Zakia won the Adidas women 5 kilometres in Prague beating world champion Gladys Otero by 17 seconds. She also participated in the Beijing 2008 Olympics finishing fourth in 3,000 meters. Samson, 30 years old now, won a gold medal in 2006 Commonwealth games in Melbourne, Australia and his time was 2 hours, 11 minutes and 29 seconds.

 The Commonwealth games record is held by Briton Ian Thompson who clocked 2 hours, 09 minutes and 12 seconds in 1974, Christchurch, New Zealand. Although Samson was 55th in the Olympic Games in China, he won the Beppu-Oita Marathon in Kyushu, Japan in 2003 and Lake Biwa Marathon, Japan in 2007. The contingent would not be completed without 29-year-old Faustin Musa who has already been very active this year. In April he took part in marathon in Krakow, and a month later in Mannheim Half-marathon (Germany). In 2009 he was also busy by running in Melbourne (10,000 meters), Berlin (10kilometres road run) plus half marathon in Albacete, Spain.

 Let us not forget little known Mohammed Msenduki Ikoki a promising Marathon runner. In 2009, he won the Buenos Aries Marathon with a superb time of 2 hours, 13 minutes and 53 seconds, in Argentina. The three marathon runners hope to forge a formidable triumvirate in a bid to end a 32-year Olympic medal hunger.

The Tanzanians were also interviewed by upcoming London Tanzanian presenter, Sporah Njau who beams her programmes through Ben TV of SKY. Speaking to me afterwards the enthusiastic Sporah said the athletes looked and seemed “quite determined to win anything this time.”

 However, she noted that the athletes complained about lack of support from social media network sights i.e. bloggers. “There is a tendency for our bloggers to highlight football and other things, which is important of course, but Olympics and the Olympic team need to be assisted because we have a bigger chance of winning than in football.”

She also said that the runners were worried about training on tarmac in the UK for such a long time (since arriving here July 9th) whereas they are used to run on natural, earthy surface back home. All athletes, Sporah observed, treat athletics as part of their work and not just a passing cloud, which will end after the Olympics in August. Zakia Mrisho for example is a mother and says she is constantly running in other international events.

 Meanwhile, Tanzania’s Olympic veteran and head of TOC, Filbert Bayi is expected to leave Dar on July 25th to join the national team and also attend a general meeting for Olympic heads in London. Our squad was boosted with a promise 2,000 dollars (3 million Tanzania shillings) reward for any medal winner pledged by former head of the Tanzanian army, General Mirisho Sarakikya.

Disciplined, hard working Sarakikya hoisted the Uhuru torch on the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro at the time of independence 50 years ago. London Olympics expects that 9.7 million people shall attend and 4.7 billion TV viewers world wide, to witness the 10, 500 athletes from 204 nations participating in 26 games.