Drivers
prepare for Iringa Rally fight
By Joyce Macha
A fierce battle is expected in the fourth edition of the National
Rally Championship that takes place in Iringa on May 6 and 7.
Top drivers who will fight for a win include Pano Calavria, who won the last
rally held recently in Tanga, runner up Saleh Balhabou of Morogoro, Omar
Bakhressa of Dar es Salaam, Sameer Nahdi Shanto and the Tanganyika Motors’ hero
Kirit Pandya.
Saleh Balhabou said he would drive his Subaru for the first time in Iringa so as
to match with his rivals, Pano, Bakhressa, Kirit and Shanto who will show their
skills in Subaru Imprezas.
“Iringa has excellent roads for rallying and Subaru is the only machine suitable
for the roads,” said Balhabou.
Kirit Pandya, one of the leaders in 2005 seeding points, said his disastrous
finish in Tanga two weeks ago disrupted his attempt to clinch the national
championship title, but one rally could not stop him winning this year’s title.
Pano, who recorded his first win for five years, said he was expecting a second
win in Iringa, which, he said would give him an impressive lead in the seeding
points standing. “I will be unbeatable once again in Iringa,” he boasted.
Iringa Rally, according to the Chairman of Iringa Motor Sports Club (IMSC), Pat
Comtois will debut with 35km Super Special Stage May 6 which will see cars off
at Samora Stadium to Tosamaganga.
The driver with the fastest time from the Super Stage will s tart the second leg
of the rally on May 7.
Comtois named the main centres of the route as Iringa town-Ifunda, Iringa
town-Ihemi, Iringa town-Airport and Iringa town-Tosamaganga, almost repeating
the last year’s route.
Last year’s winner was Omar Bakhressa and Secretary General of IMSC, Ahmed Huwel
took the runner up position.
Makene,
Yusuf star in Union Basketball League
By Burton Brown
Charles Makene of JKT and Yusuf Abdul of Savio were inspirational players as
their teams remain unbeaten in the Union Basketball League that continues at the
Indoor Stadium in Dar es Salaam.
The two teams are top of the league with six points each.
Savio, the most accomplished team in the league began their title campaign after
beating Rangers of Zanzibar in their first encounter before recording a second
win against their archrivals, Vijana. On Tuesday they beat Stone Town from
Zanzibar in the thrilling encounter.
The upcoming Yusuf Abdul teamed up well with Michael Mwita and George Tarimo
upfront.
“We have been training hard for this event, the only hurdle are JKT Boys, who
have also played impressively in their first three matches,” said Tarimo.
Savio recorded a century last week when they beat Rangers 103-47. Yusuf Abdul
and Jacob Marenga scored an impressive number of points.
Makene was the star when JKT beat the Zanzibar side 91-47. Their second win came
after beating ABC 89-44. Frank Simkoko scored 23 points and Gilbert Batungi
scored 11 points.
Dulla, an international player for Stone Town, scored 27 points when his team
lost to Savio 59-72.
Dar Leopards
seek revenge in Arusha
By Express reporter
Dar Leopards leave for Arusha tomorrow ahead of the weekend’s May
Day Rugby that will be held at Brae burn School ground.
The team, said its player Jay Njwelige, hope to settle the scores with Arusha
Rhinos who beat the Dar es Salaam side both home and away during the first
division of the Tanzania rugby league that ended in March this year.
Tanzania National Rugby team coach and manager, Tinus Aucamp named the other
teams to take part as Kilicats of Moshi Kilimanjaro, The B side of Arusha Rhinos
and the International School team.
Aucamp said the tournament would be a good preparation for the players in the
national team ahead of the Tri-Nation International Rugby Championship in Arusha
May 6 and 7.
“We expect to have more teams in a similar tournament next year. Rugby is slowly
gaining grounds in the country, we hope by next year most of the newly formed
teams will be matured enough to compete in the national tournaments,” said
Aucamp.
Arusha Rhinos are the National Rugby champions of this year after beating Dar
Leopards in the final match held at ISMA Ground Arusha two months ago.
The absence of a good number of the rugby teams forced the league to start with
only teams from Moshi, Dar es Salaam and Arusha.
Dar hosts
international handball meet
By Burton Brown
Teams from four African countries are set to meet in an
international handball tournament scheduled for May 2 to 4 at the National
Indoor Stadium, Dar es Salaam.
The President of East and Central African Handball Federation (ECAHF), Cecillius
Fussi told The Express the tournament would include teams from the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda and the hosts Tanzania.
“However, only two foreign teams have so far confirmed. They are from Rwanda and
the DRC. We expect teams from Kenya to confirm anytime from now,” he said.
According to Fussi each country is supposed to send two teams with the exception
of Tanzania which is allowed more than two teams in the event. “For Tanzanian
teams it is an open tournament which does not limit the number of clubs eligible
to participate,” he said.
Tanzanian teams ready to take part include Prisons (men’s team), JKT (men and
women’s teams), Dar Stars (women) and the two teams from Zanzibar.
Develop talents, says Vice Mayor
By Burton Brown
Vice Mayor of Dar es Salaam, Hanzuruni Mungula has urged the
managements of schools to develop the sporting talents they have.
The Vice Mayor said this during the closing ceremony of the Aga Khan Annual
Sports Day that took place at Mzizima Secondary School as part of the
celebrations marking the presence of Aka Khan schools for 100 years in the
country.
“I have noted many hidden talents among the students from various schools
participating in this event, mainly in volleyball. If the youth get proper means
of developing their talents, they will be very helpful to the nation,” he said.
More than 20 teams from Dar es Salaam and Coast regions took part in the event.
In volleyball the team formed from ex-Mzizima School players won the men’s title
after beating International Academia, while Loyola School took second runners up
position.
In the girls’ discipline, Shaaban Robert came first, followed by Jangwani.
Loyola came third.
In handball, Mzizima won the men’s title, Kibiti took second position ahead of
Al Muntazir who ended third overall.
Burhan,
Ekta in TCA League Saturday
By Boogie Juma
Tanzania Cricket Association (TCA) league resumes this weekend when
Annadil Burhan will face Ekta at Annadil Burhan grounds in Dar es Salaam.
Annadil Burhan will bank on Taher Jiwajee who ended the Nyerere Cup Cricket
Tournament with a record score of 61 runs not out when his team faced Dar es
Salaam Gymkhana.
Speaking to The Express this week, Jiwajee said they are highly likely to make a
good start in the league after good preparations.
He said there is only one team in the tournament that can threaten Annadil
Burhan and that is Aga Khan whose key player, Nair Mahesh steered the team to
victory against TCA Development Team in their first match of the league.
In B division, the league resumes with a match between Ekta Dynamo and Union
Veterans to take place at Annadil Burhan Oval this Saturday morning. In the
evening the B side of TCA team will face Union B at the same venue.
For the first time the newly formed TCA Development Team from Morogoro has been
called to participate in the event alongside prominent cricket teams from Dar es
Salaam such as Aga Khan, Ekta, Annadil Burhan and Union.
Calavria
stays 4 points ahead
By Joyce Macha
Pano Calavria is now four points ahead of Kirit Pandya after snatching 64 points
in the NAS Tanga Rally a fortnight ago.
Kirit took the lead in the seeding points standing this year after winning two
rallies, earning him 124 points, 48 points ahead of Pano Calvarias who
accumulated 76 points after the Knight Support Rally of Tanzania and Zantel 500
rally of Zanzibar.
According to the new seeding points standing released this week by the
Commission of Motor Sports Club in Tanzania, Pano is slightly ahead of Kirit
after collecting 140 total points while Pandya remained with 136 points after
getting only 8 points in Tanga.
Three drivers, Salim Haji of Dar es Salaam, Navraj Hans of Arusha and Kelvin
have tied at the third position with 60 points each.
Young Dharam Pandya is fourth overall with 56 points, followed by his brother,
Anwar Pandya with 55 points. Shanto Nahdi and Arusha-based driver, Khalid Kassam
are fifth with 50 points each, followed by Saleh Balhabou with 48 points.
FIBA
delegate awards Dulla
By Burton Brown
Federation of International Basketball Associations (FIBA) Technical Delegate,
Anicet Lavodrama awarded Abdullah Ramadhani Dulla of Stonetown this week with a
CD containing techniques of coaching basketball.
Lavodrama arrived in Tanzania last week to assess the development of basketball
in the country and witness the matches of the ongoing Union Basketball League.
Dulla, a Tanzanian professional basketball player who has just returned to the
country after a successful professional career in Mauritius, received the award
during the Union Basketball League match between his team (Stone Town) and
Vijana City Bulls of Dar es Salaam, which took place at the national indoor
stadium.
Lavodrama told The Express that Dulla’s industrious playing impressed him. “The
player has all qualities of a good basketball player. His accurate passes, ball
control and his incredible prowess in both attacking and defending make him fit
to play anywhere else in the world,” he said.
In the match, Dulla steered his team to a stunning 65-57 victory over Vijana.
Stone Town’s players Saidi Kasimu, Mustaph Ramadhan, Ally Muhidin under the
patronage Abdallah Ramadhan outclassed Vijana who looked unprepared for the
match.
Dulla managed to score 19 points followed by Yohana Davis of Vijana with 12
points.
Jeshi Stars all set to win netball title
By Burton Brown
Unbeaten in the ongoing First Division Netball League, Jeshi Stars
are on track to clinch the title. Their archrivals, JKT Mbweni with only one
loss so far, are close behind.
Jeshi Stars have played four matches and won all, while JKT Mbweni who lost to
Jeshi Stars in their first match last week, are the only threat to Jeshi Stars.
Police Mara is third in the league. Police Mara beat netball league veterans,
Mapinduzi of Dodoma 50-51 before hammering Police Mbeya 52-26 in a one sided
match on Sunday.
The league leaders thrashed JKT Makutupora 59-30 while Police Morogoro outplayed
Magereza Tabora 49-39, before Police Mbeya trouncing Veta Mgulani 40-19; all
matches took place at Railway Gerezani Ground.
Assistant Secretary General of Tanzania Netball Association (CHANETA), Damian
Chonya said this year’s league have seen improvement in the upcountry teams,
with Police Mara and Police Morogoro outperforming other newcomers.
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