Tanzania: Geay’s Olympic Games Qualification Delights At

ATHLETICS Tanzania (AT) expressed its delight with a stunning performance by a local marathoner Gabriel Geay in Rome, Italy over the weekend, which enabled him to secure a ticket for the forthcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

Tanzania fielded only two marathoners — Geay and Natalie Sulle in the Olympic qualifying series held in Rome over the weekend.

The event attracted over 200 runners from different countries. Geay finished sixth with a timing of 2:04:55 an improvement of three minutes from his previous race record, according to AT Vice-President, John Bayo.

His finishing time has therefore, enabled him to qualify for the Tokyo Games, adding the number of Tanzanian athletes who qualified so far to three.

Other local athletes who have qualified for the quadrennial Games are Alphonce Simba and Failuna Abdi Matanga.

Bayo said that Sulle did not perform well to secure the qualifying marks, but will remain in camp in Arusha, to train for the next year’s All Africa Games.

Geay and Sulle were expected to return home late in the evening yesterday. “We have been highly impressed with his qualifying marks and we believe that he will improve more the forthcoming Games in Tokyo,” said Bayo.

The Games were earlier expected to be held last year, but were postponed because of Coronavirus pandemic. Bayo said that Simbu and Abdi alongside Augustine Sulle will on May 23rd this year travel to Vienna, Austria to compete in another race.

For Simbu and Abdi, they will be participating only to test their mettle since they have already qualified the Tokyo Games while for Sulle, he will be seeking for his qualification bid.

Two local swimmers Collins Saliboko and Hilal Hilal recently flopped at the African Swimming Confederation (Confédération Africaine de Natation: Cana) camp held in Stellenbosch, South Africa, from May 2 to 8 this year.

It was an opportunity for swimmers to achieve the Olympic Games qualifying standards, but they failed.