A blame game has erupted between Tanzania Olympics Committee (TOC) and National Paralympics Committee (TPC) on who is responsible for the country's failure to send its special needs athletes to the coming Commonwealth Games slated for end July to early August this year in Glasgow, Scotland.
TOC are local organizers of the Commonwealth Games and through its Vice President Henry Tandau the country quota for special needs athletes is one place.
Tandau said the TOC through International Olympics Committee (IOC) Sponsored Jumanne Nassoro Zea to prepare for the Glasgow Games , saying he has been attending the training in South Africa for more than two years.
“ We have been sponsoring athlete Jumanne Nassoro Zea for the past two and half years, we were preparing him for the coming commonwealth games in Scotland , his local coach is Bahati Mgunda,” saidTandau .
He said one of the conditions for special needs athletes to compete at international events is that the athlete should have a classification and license, the things which Tandau said Zea lacked.
“ We communicated to TPC and informed them on the deadline for special athletes to submit their classification certificates to IOC ,the local Paralympics committee (TPC)told us that Zea will travel to Dubai for classification, the thing they never did,” he said.
Tandau said ,to their surprise ,after IOC closed the dates for submitting athletes classifications ,TPC wrote them that Tanzanian Wheelchair Racing athlete Hilmy Shawwal who is based in the United Kingdom (UK)has all the requirements (classification and license)and he is ready to represent the country at the Commonwealth Games, he said TOC informed TPC that it’s too late for the county to register its athlete for the games and it’s obvious that Tanzania quota has been given to another nation.
He , however , could not give a specific deadline for registration ,only to say it was last March. .
According to him Classification determines which athletes are eligible to compete in a sport and how those athletes are then grouped together for competition in order to minimise the impact of the athletes' impairments on sport performance. This is done to safeguard the integrity of fair competition.
Classification is sport-specific because an impairment affects the ability to perform in different sports to a different extent.
As a consequence, an athlete may meet the criteria in one sport, but may not meet the criteria in another sport. Having an impairment is thus not sufficient for an athlete to compete in Para sport.
However , in an interview last Thursday .TPC president Tuma Dandi denied receiving any invitation from TOC for the country to send its athlete to the Scotland Commonwealth Games.
He said if his committee received any invitation they would have prepared many athletes including Shawwal, he however attributed the communication breakdown between TOC and TPC to dilemma on who to deal with as there are two TOC leaderships, one elected and headed by Filbert Bayi who is Secretary General of the committee and the other appointed by the government and led by Aden Rage.
“ We did not receive any invitation from TOC and we did not make any follow up as we were confused on who is leading TOC ,to be honest I don't even have Aden Rage contacts, so it was difficult for us to know who to deal with,” he said .
He also denied that athlete Zea was preparing for the commonwealth games,saying the athlete and his coach were training in South Africa under the Gather ,Adjust, Prepare, Sustain(GAPS )Program which is aimed at helping emerging Para-athletes and coaches overcome barriers and build inclusive sport pathways.
The TPC official also disclosed that the committee wrote to the International Paralympics Committee (IPC)applying for Zea license, but the international committee did not grant the local athlete the license,he however failed short of disclosing the motive of applying for the license when they don’t have an invitation from TOC.
“ We submitted to the IPC all the requirements for a special needs athlete to be granted a license, But the international Paralympics body did not grant us the license,” he said .
Dandi,however ,confirmed that on 6 of this month (May)TPC through him wrote TOC (Headed by Bayi)requesting if Shawwel could be considered to represent the country at the commonwealth games, But TOC told them that the deadline for registration is over.
He said the focus now is on the 2028 United States of America (USA)Los Angeles Paralympics Games where they plan to send many athletes, saying Hilmy Shawwal is one of the athletes who will represent the country at the coming Paralympics.
During the last Commonwealth Games which was held in the UK the country was represented by Para power lifter Yohana Mwila .
