TANZANITE Women Sports Festival climaxed on Saturday at Uhuru Stadium in Dar es Salaam after three days of sports marathon and splendour of traditional games.
The speaker of the National Assembly Tulia Ackson graced the climax of the festival that started on Thursday at Benjamin Mkapa stadium.
The most notable event during the festival's climax included epic football encounters between Simba Queens and Yanga Princess and the former claimed a comfortable 2-0 win.
Goals from Oppa Clement in the 61st minute and Jentrix Shikangwa in the 87th minute were enough to silence Yanga Princess.
Simba Queens won the trophy and claimed 3m/- cash prize while Yanga Princess pocketed 1.5m/-.
In another encounter at the same venue saw Baobab Queens claiming a 9-8 win on penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw in the normal time.
The victory earned Baobab Queens grab 3m/- cash prize while Fountain Gate pocketed 1.5m/-.
The three-day festival also involved a workshop and other sports and traditional games.
The sports that brightened this year's festival are netball, basketball, wrestling and athletics, netball, boxing, basketball, kabaddi and wrestling.
The festival has succeeded in motivating the young women to engage more in the sports sector.
Also worth reporting is the netball match between Tanzania and Uganda and the hosts won 45-44.
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The victory earned Tanzania netball team 2.5 m/- cash prize while Uganda team received 2m/-.
In volley, Ngorongoro beat Serengeti by 3-2 sets and awarded 1.5 m/- while Serengeti pocketed 750,000/-.
Kabaddi was also among the games that heightened this year's festival. Buffalo emerged the overall winner to claim 1.5 m/- cash prize.
Moreover, athletics was among the games which was involved whereby the Tanzanian athletes excelled in 1500m race and it was Salma Charles who won the event after clocking 4 minutes, 40 seconds and 04 points while the runner up was Grace Jackson who clocked 4:45:19 while the third placed finisher was Eliza Ilanda who spent 4:48:31 and there were also 800 meter race, 400 meter, 200 , 100 meter race and all the winners were also added.
In boxing, Zambian boxers outshined Tanzanians through Meredith Ngona who beat Tanzanian Mariam Richard in the 48 kg minimum weight category before Katherine Mwape outpunching Shakira Abdallah in light flight weight.
During the climax, the speaker Ackson urged the National Sports Council (NSC) to continue reviving the sports in districts so as to develop young talents.
The speaker has commended the Ministry for Culture, Arts and Sports and she insisted the NSC to increase motivation in promoting women's sports in the country.
"I congratulate the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Sports for collaborating with NSC in organising this festival which supports the efforts of our President Samia Suluhu Hassan to develop sports and arts so that they can be used to promote the country's tourist attractions," said Tulia.
