been in place for a short two years, and some weeks remain to that election date as well. One area where comparisons are being made is in the sports arena, where unlike economic policy for instance, official action is not always the leading factor but it has always been vital for sports development. Itis also vital at present.
One recent event would appear to shore up these comparisons owing to the clearly momentous appearance of a Tanzania athlete on themedals podium of annual competitions of International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF), Alphonce Simbu. At the level of timing thiscoincides with plenty of work the government is doing in ensuring good governance and ending the rot that is often noticed in sportsassociations, but it must be said that athletics has not seen officials being hived off for graft, etc. In a sense that is to be expected as theyhandle little cash.
If in the final analysis officials in various athletics bodies shall conduct themselves in a more appropriate manner, especially if there aresports development funds that pass through those associations and are finally used for the purpose, entirely, no doubt is there thatathletics shall be the big winner. But this is altogether tentative, and the reason for the country’s decline in sports needs to be soughtelsewhere, for instance in policy lapses where for decades sports was removed from school both at primary and secondary school level.The result is that budding talent is wasted.
These weaknesses were a result of first phase militancy and excessive enthusiasm on the part of ministerial officials, where in many casessports fields were turned into farms, to ensure pupils don’t have to go too far to meet production quotas. This disappeared in the secondphase but facilities remained dormant or absent, which started being rectified in the third phase, but only sporadically, for instance insetting up full sports schools within the armed forces, etc. Gradual spread of sports facilities has started by improving regional andmunicipal grounds, etc.
Comparing the country’s sporting situation with our neighbours shows that while their progress has been stunning in past decades wetended to be falling backwards when comparing with the shining days of current sports elders like Filbert Bayi or Suleiman Nyambui.That is one reason why the recent Simbu bronze medal was a national event as the IAAF world championships are something next to apartial Olympic Games. We have usually not been candidates for medals at that level but in Commonwealth Games and in All AfricaGames; they have lesser competition.
More critically is how far current efforts at all-round development will enable the country to improve sports facilities at municipal anddistrict level, such that good stadiums are found in all regions, and most schools have playing facilities. The latter shall not be easy asmany things hinder such plans, like the range of subjects that even primary school pupils are subjected to, and apart from using muchtime to reach school and to go back home, they often have tuition classes to attend. The two burdens, added to regular class attendance,are by and large adequate for kids. That is why it must be admitted that Tanzania has serious structural deficits to be able to come backto being noticed at the continental level, but signs are positive.
_0.jpg?itok=QU87XW8D){kind=tracking}
.jpeg?itok=vCj6bCRe)
