Under-17 team gets a gala reception
By Express reporter
Tanzania has eventually qualified to play in the continental soccer finals after
staying
out of it for quarter of a century.
Tanzania’s Under-17 National Youth side, brought back the much needed attention
to
football after beating Zimbabwe’s Young Warriors in the return leg held in
Bulawayo,
Zimbabwe last Sunday.
The Young Boys beat the Zimbabweans 4-1 on aggregate after 3-1 win at home in
Dar
es Salaam two weeks ago and going on to win 1-0 last Sunday in the away match.
The last time Tanzania participated in the continental soccer finals was in 1980
when
Peter Tino, Juma Pondamali, Leodegar Tenga, Mohamed Salim, Kitwana Manara
and Thuwein Ally were part of the team that beat Zambia 3-2 on aggregate on
their
way to Lagos where the finals were played at the famous Surulele Stadium.
Upon their arrival from their successful mission in Zimbabwe, thousands of
soccer fans
and government officials greeted the players, Serengeti Boys from Zimbabwe after
qualifying for the Africa Youth Championship finals to be held in Gambia in May,
this
year.
“All Tanzanians are proud of what you have done,” remarked Kapuya as he hugged
Serengeti Boys’ team captain Hassan Bwaza.
As it was announced before the team left for Bulawayo, Professor Kapuya reminded
the players and soccer fan that the government would ensure the team travels
abroad
for further training to shape up for the forthcoming gruelling tournament.
Team Coach Abdallah Kibadeni, said he expects to reinforce his team by
introducing
at least two new players, a midfielder and a striker before the Gambia finals.
Other officials, who showed up to receive the team, were the Registrar of Clubs
and
Sports Associations, Leonard Thadeo, the Director of Sports in the Ministry of
Labour
Youth Development and Sports, Henry Ramadhan, and the President of the Tanzania
Football Federation (TFF), Leodegar Tenga.
SC Villa Coach praises Simba
By Burton Brown
SC Villa Coach, Freddy Lukwago has praised Tanzania’s Champions for the team’s
superb football, which he said came from exposure of international matches.
The coach said this after his team played against Dar es Salaam soccer giants,
Simba
and Young Africans at the National Stadium over the weekend.
He said Simba showed better soccer standard than their archrivals Young
Africans.
In their first match played on Saturday, SC Villa drew against Simba, before the
visitors beat Young Africans 1-0 on Sunday.
“We have played against the two teams and the matches gave us enough training.
The level of our soccer does not differ, but Simba seemed better than two of us
because of their experience of the international matches,” said Lukwago.
However, the Ugandan coach warned Simba to concentrate on stamina building
exercises. He said the team lost the steam in the last 30 minutes.
He said of all the players he saw, Simba’s striker, Athumani Machupa impressed
him
most.
African Rally at any cost despite sponsor’s
withdrawal
By Joyce Macha
The Rally Commission of Tanzania is struggling in the last minute to find the
main
sponsor of Africa’s First Rally, which Tanzania is staging February 12 and 13 in
Dar es
Salaam.
The rush to find a new sponsor came this week after the company that promised to
back the event, backed out at the last minute.
“The company, which had earlier stopped us from getting another company to back
the championship, decided to back out on Monday with only two weeks before we
stage the competition. It was a big blow, but we will stage it whatever case it
might
be,” said Arif Ahmed the convenor of the Rally Commission.
Ahmed assured Tanzanians that the Commission would use whatever resources they
have to make sure Tanzania does not miss this rally.
“It is the opening rally for Africa, and the first international rally Tanzania
will stage
since independence. It will cost us too much if we miss out on this
opportunity,” he
said.
Ahmed pledged for support from other Tanzanian companies in order to make
Africa’s number one rally a success.
In another development, Arif said more drivers are still sending their
confirmation to
participate in the Tanzanian edition of the African Rally Championship.
According to Ahmed, Kenya has now increased the number of drivers expected to
race in Tanzania from six to eight, while Zambia said it would send two drivers
including the Africa’s 2004 Champion, Munna Singh.
But the driver to fear is the Ugandan Riyaz Kurji who ended third overall in the
last
year season. With his navigator Sayyed Kadri, Kurji will be cruising his Group N
Subaru Impreza.
The newest name in the competition will be Namibian Richard Himmel who was in
Dar es Salaam last week trying to gather enough information on the environment
and
the route of competition.
Dar Leopards, Kilicats Rugby Premier opener
By Joyce Macha
Dar es Salaam’s Rugby Team, The Leopards, open their campaign to excel in the
2005 edition against Moshi Kilicats in a match scheduled to kick off on February
1, at
the Dar es Salaam Gymkhana Club grounds.
The Team Captain, Chris Hanlin told The Express this week all his players were
fit for
the opening match after more than a month of hard training.
He said Leopards who had a poor show in the last year's inaugural League when
they
fell to Arusha Rhinos in the final match, would try to retain their lost glory
by winning
this year's league trophy.
In retrospect, the top official in Tanzania Rugby Union, Tinus Aucamp said that
he
would be making its second year in 2005 after the successful launch last year.
However, Aucamp said that this league was earlier scheduled to start last Friday
but it
had to be pushed back due to some technical reasons, which he however, would not
reveal.
Apart from the two teams which will play in the opening game, the other team
involved in the league is Rhinos of Arusha, who are the defending champions.
“We are busy making final touches ahead of the league. And, everyone is looking
forward to winning this year’s edition”, Aucamp said.
Aucamp said the second match would be played on February 12 with Arusha Rhinos
playing host to Moshi Kilicats at the Breaburn School ground.
Dream exercise rescheduled
By Express reporter
The training session of the Dar es Salaam Region Basketball Team (The Dream
Team) has been rescheduled into three day a week effectively from Monday this
week.
One of the team’s coaches, Manase Zablon told The Express this week that the
changes came so as to allow the players to train with their teams ahead of the
National Basketball Championship to be held in Tanga later this month.
“Since the Championship will take place before the East African Intercity
Championship, it was agreed to let the players train with their clubs for some
days,”
he said.
According to Zablon, the players will train with their clubs on Tuesday, Friday
and
Saturday and train with the regional players every Monday, Wednesday and Friday
at
Zanaki Secondary School Ground.
Intercity Basketball Championship is scheduled to take place in Mombassa, Kenya
from the end of February.
Manase said the National Basketball Championship is scheduled to take place in
Tanga later this month.
Dar es Salaam Regional Basketball team began serious training two weeks ago at
Zanaki Sec. School practising with all stars of Kili RBA League of the just
ended
season.
The main players in the team come from Vijana, Savio, JKT, UDSM Outsiders,
Chang’ombe Boys and Pazi while in the women team the players come from JKT,
Jeshi Stars and Cargo Ladies.
Men’s netball League underway
By Boogie Juma
Plans are underway to establish men’s First Division Netball League, which will
be
included in the 2005 edition of women’s first division league set to open from
April 16
to 30 at Railway Gerezani Ground, Dar es Salaam.
The Assistant Secretary General of Tanzania Netball Association (CHANETA),
Damian
Chonya told The Express this week that talks were still going between CHANETA
and
the clubs to enable the formation of the league.
He said CHANETA could announce the league, but poor number of clubs already
registered, barred the association from doing so.
Chonya named the active clubs in the netball as JKT Jeshi Stars and Police Mara.
In another development, Chonya said more than eighteen teams will lock horns in
this year’s first division league including three teams which won promotion this
year.
According to Chonya, the newly promoted club includes Police Arusha, Police Dar
es
Salaam and Prisons, Dar es Salaam.
JKT Mbweni is the defending champion of the first division netball league after
dethroning JKT in the last year event.
Prisons fit to tame Madagascar’s USCAF
By Burton Brown
Tanzania’s flag bearers in the Confederation Cup, Mbeya Prisons assured
Tanzanians
of a spirited performance when the team face USCAF of Madagascar in the first
leg of
the championship this weekend.
The Chief Sports Official of Prisons Department, Twalib Twalib said his boys
received
the best training including enough trial matches in readiness for the encounter.
“The trial matches that we have played in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar gave us
good
training and fitness which we hope will be enough to outperform our visitors
when
they come to Dar es Salaam this weekend,” he said.
In their recent trial matches, Prisons drew 2-2 in their match against Simba
before
losing 0-2 to Moro United.
He said the management of the team decided to halt trial matches to enable
players
and coaches concentrate more on the tactical aspects of the players.
Prisons, like Simba debut their title campaigns this week when Simba meet
Ferroviario of Mozambique in the continental’s African Club Championship
preliminaries.
Swimming body sets agenda for 2005
By Boogie Juma
The Executive Committee of Tanzania Swimming Association (TASA) meets this
weekend at Dar es Salaam University Swimming Pool to discus the association’s
strategic plans of 2005 season.
Speaking with The Express this week, The Assistant Secretary General of TASA,
Noel
Kiunsi said the meeting would focus on four main issues set in the major plan to
motivate the growth of the sport nationwide.
According to Kiunsi, the hottest issues of discussion was the constitution
amendments, which will come before submitting it to the National Sports Council
and
later to the Registrar of Sports Association.
Also scheduled for discussion was the association’s plan of the National senior
and
junior swimming competitions, which at the end will enable TASA to pick the best
swimmers who will represent the country in the various competitions.
The Saturday meeting, according to the source, will also approve the 2005
calendar
of TASA before forwarding it to the National Sports Council (NSC) and the
Tanzania
Olympic Committee (TOC).
The last agenda of the meeting is to plan the date of the mini election to
appoint the
interim Chairman of TASA who will replace the late Chairman, Alhaji Shaaban
Himba
who died last year.
Despite the efforts of TASA to motivate the development of the sport
nationwide,
swimming was yet to win much popularity in Tanzania and it has not managed to
produce international standard swimmers.
Rugby gets new bases in Mwanza, Morogoro
By Joyce Macha
The efforts of the Tanzania Rugby Union (TRU) to popularize rugby and encourage
teams to participate for the newly introduced National Rugby League has begun to
pay dividends as Morogoro and Mwanza have already formed their teams.
Only three teams from Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro and Arusha took part in the
league, which was officially introduced last year.
The pillar head of the successful venture, Coach Tinus Aucamp confirmed this
week
that the two regions had already formed their rugby clubs, could not take part
in the
league until the regions completed some of the procedures.
In another development the Tanzania National Rugby side will be assembled in
March ahead of the Regional Super16 tournament to be staged in Arusha in May.
He said the Arusha event would bring together six countries. He named the
countries
as hosts Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Seychelles, Re-Union and Mauritius. The
tournament is organised by the Confederation of African Rugby (CAR), with the
aim of
promoting and developing rugby in the continent.