Team Tanzania is ready to take Dubai by storm come July! Strong teams of 66 participants and 250 spectators from Tanzania will travel to Dubai for the Jubilee Games to be held from 22nd to 29th July 2016. Team Tanzania will participate in soccer, volleyball, throwball, table tennis, badminton, chess, swimming and golf. To prepare them for this tournament, players have been exposed to different environments and tough opponents.
The soccer team travelled to Morogoro to play a friendly match against a local Tanzanian team at the Jamhuri stadium. Another high profile training match was arranged at the Chamazi Stadium at the Azam Sports Complex in Dar. The team has also been training once a week at the Jakaya Kikwete Sports Park (also known as Sunderland park), which has an artificial turf that will be used at the Dubai tournament.
The volleyball team based in Mwanza, has been training on an indoor volleyball court, which is specially designed and constructed at the Mwanza Jamat Khana sports hall. This year, the volleyball team has played against Nairobi, followed by a tournament hosted in Mwanza against the team from Dar. The Big Five Volleyball cup was hosted in Dar in May. In the 2008 Golden Jubilee games in Kenya, the Tanzanian volleyball team won the silver medal. It is widely hoped that the team can go all the way this year in Dubai and win the Gold medal!
Not to be left behind, our team Tanzania throwball team consisting mainly of ladies from Dar and Mwanza, have also been under intensive training at the indoor court at AKPS in DSM and the Mwanza JK Sports hall. This is the first time that throwball will be played at the games and team Tanzania are one of the favorites to win the Gold as the game has been played for many years in Tanzania. The team has made several trips to Mwanza and DSM for matches.
The table tennis team has also been intensively training at AKPS and at the Kisutu school table tennis training academy. Our team consists of very experienced players including the Tanzania National team player, Rashid Shariff who was until very recently the Captain of the Tanzania National Table Tennis team. Rashid is part of the team which has taken part in the Golden Jubilee Games in 2008.
The Badminton team has been training regularly at the Maratha institute in DSM. The team captain, Ayzaz Jessani, is one of the top Badminton players in Tanzania. Ayzaz also participated in the Golden Jubilee Games in 2008.
The Team Tanzania swimmer who will represent us at the Dubai games, Iyas Shivji, has been training intensively in the USA where he has won a swimming scholarship. Iyas has been part of the Tanzania National swim team for many years, taking part in many National and International events and is widely regarded as one of the top swimmers in Tanzania. This is the first time Tanzania will be represented in the swimming event.
Chess is another event where Tanzania will be represented for the first time by Shamshu Panjwani. He has been an ardent chess player at the Ramadhan tournament champion for the past 4 years. He is also a regular participant of all chess tournaments organized in the country. Shamshu is training for the event with Chess officials from the Tanzania Chess Association.
Our golf player Shabbir Abji is a very experienced and had also participated in the 2008 Golden Jubilee games. His experience will be vital in the Dubai games.
Other activities expected to take place during the games in Dubai include: excursions to nearby countries to view AKDN projects, an International Bazaar where all countries will showcase their culture and heritage, a soccer camp by the Spanish giants FC Barcelona for children and youth, desert safaris, amongst others.
The Tanzania Jamat can look forward to a very exciting celebration of our Imam’s Jubilee at the games. The Jamat travelling for the games is also strongly urged to make sure that they support and cheer our Tanzanian teams in ALL the sports. All our players have been training very hard for many months now to be able to represent our Jamat well.
Finally, to all our players, win or no win, we are all very proud of your commitment and discipline! We wish all of you the very best and we are sure you will fly our flag high in and outside the sports field!
LETS GO TZ….LETS GO!!!!!