The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
Majuto Omary
24 June 2009
Twenty regional teams have confirmed to participate in the National Athletics Championship that will start on Friday at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam
Athletics Tanzania (AT) secretary general Suleiman Nyambui said only six regions had not yet confirmed until yesterday.
"Twenty regions have done it, but we aren't sure if the remaining regions will participate because they are silent," he said.
He said they were expecting many teams to arrive today ready for the prestigious national tournament.
The regions that have not confirmed participation are Kigoma, Iringa, Rukwa, Mwanza, Lindi and Kagera
Nyambui said only athletes who attained qualifying marks would be allowed to participate unlike in the past when everyone was eligible for the event.
He said the qualifying marks for 200m race were 24 seconds and 28:30 seconds for men and women respectively while the Olympics standard marks are 20: 59 for men and 23:00 seconds for women.
In the 400m category, 51 seconds were marks set for men and 65 seconds for women unlike the Olympic marks that are 45:51 and 51:55 seconds respectively.
According to Nyambui, the qualifying marks for the 800m race were 2 minutes for men and 2:30 minutes for women.
Four minutes were set for men who aspired to compete in the 1,500m while women's time was 4:30 minutes.
Others disciplines with their qualifying times in brackets are 5,000m (15:00minutes for men, 18:00min. for women) and 10,000m (31 min. for men, 41 min. for women).
The AT official said men had to attain a minimum of 11metres in shot put while women's mark was 8.45 m.
The tournament will be held in Dar es Salaam for the first time in over 30 years
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 The Citizen. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
