THE Minister for Information, Youth, Culture and Sports Fenella Mukangara has launched the 10th Coca-Cola African Optimist Championship 2012, at the Dar es Salaam Yacht Club and urged the coordinators to prepare a team that will represent Tanzania at the 2016 Olympics for the sailors team.

The 2016 Olympics are scheduled to take place in Brazil. The Minister was the chief guest at the opening ceremony of the tournament which has attracted participation of 13 Countries. Minister Mukangara also congratulated Coca-Cola Company, which is the official sponsor of the event, to continue investing in various other sectors in the country.

"I am very happy to see that the participants of this tournament are youth whom, when cared properly can represent well our country at various international tournaments. It's my wish to see these youth take part in Olympics in the next four years," Mukangara said.

The tournament is involving youth aged 8-13 years. She said that the right time has come for different stakeholders to invest in developing the youth while at schools for the bright future of sports in our country. "I know it is expensive to host this tournament. I am very thankful to Dar es Salaam Yatch Club for managing to host this event. We are lucky that we have good infrastructure for this kind of competition like rivers, lakes and the ocean.

It's my hope that different corporate companies will continue supporting you in future," the minister said. On his part, the Coca-Cola Kwanza Managing Director Basil Gadzious said that his firm is very committed in sponsoring different sector in the country. He said that the firm will also increase investing in the country for bright economy of the country.

The 10th Coca-Cola African Optimist Championship 2012 kicked off on August 19th 2012 and will run up to Saturday. The participating countries are Tanzania, Kenya, Algeria, Tunisia, Mozambique, Seychelles, Re-Union, Zimbabwe, Oman and South Africa.