To the majority of them, however, they know only athletics and boxing as sports that their fellow Tanzanians have competed and excelled in the world-class events such as Olympics, Commonwealth or All African games.
Most often, they are overwhelmingly guided by history of the country’s participation in the games since 1964, when Tanzania became an affiliated member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
It is not clearly established how deep was the influence of John Steven Aqwary, the Tanzanian marathoner who later came to be regarded as the creator of Olympic spirit when he forced himself to finish the 42km race while deeply wounded.
Today, the world and Tanzanians at large strongly believe that John Steven’s world of courage,” My country sent me he to finish the race,” somehow contributed in making Tanzanian athletes believe long distance races, including the marathon are their domain, a situation that was later consolidated by the immense success marathoners such as Gidamis Shahanga, Juma Ikangaa, John Yuda, Simon Roberts, Francis Naali and Samson Ramadhan after winning countless titles at the global level.
While cherishing long distance runners and track stars, little has been said on the two athletes who had brilliant performance in field events. They are Zakayo Marekwa and an iron lady Matilda Kisava who are hardly mentioned to the extent they seem to have left no legacy, while they really did.
The two have won a total of 5 medals for the country besides setting records that have not been broken for over three decades. Matilda Kisava, the former employee of JKT Oljoro was most brilliant Tanzanian lady in field event. She won bronze medal in All African Games held in September 1991 in Cairo Egypt after finishing behind two Kenyans; Seraphina Nyauma who won gold and her country mate Anna Otutu who claimed a silver.
Matilda Kisava won bronze after throwing 46.58m, which has remained for a long time a national record. Less heralded today in the country that cherishes marathoners and long distance runners, is Zakayo Marekwa whose performance in javelin was far superior to Kisava and many other who reign as national heroes.
Marekwa, in his ten-year career as an athlete of field events, managed to win one gold, two silvers and one bronze, making him one of two Tanzanians who have four medals in separate world class events.
Filbert Bayi, who won one of the two Olympic silvers, also managed four medals; two gold medals in 1,500m and a silver in 1500m after finishing second to Great Britain’s Dave Moorcroft in Commonwealth Games of Edmonton, Canada in 1978. The third overall, is Gidamis Shahanga who has won 2 gold medals in Club Games of Edmonton Canada in 1978 and Brisbane four years later.
Marekwa’s record has never been threatened by the later javelin throwers and it is likely to remain forever unbroken, unless the country seriously engages in grooming Marekwa’s disciples.
Though he didn’t manage to win an Olympic medal, Marekwa was the inspirational figure in other world-class events such as Commonwealth and All African Games. His first medal was silver he won in All Africa Games in 1979 after throwing 76:06 metres, a year later he finished 14th in Moscow Olympic after throwing 71.58 metres.
In 1982, Marekwa won bronze medal in the Commonwealth Games of Brisbane after attaining 80.22, which has remained a national record since then.
In 1982, Marekwa won his first gold medal in the All African Games held in Cairo, Egypt, though he didn’t beat his Brisbane personal best. He threw 76.18m. He concluded his medal chase with a silver in 1984 after finishing second in the All Africa Games hosted in Nairobi Kenya.
During their reign, javelin community was wholly dominated by athletes from Eastern Europe, though today the world is becoming accustomed to champions from unusual backgrounds, if only because it has no choice.
When Tanzanian Alphonce Simbu claimed one of the top-five positions in Rio Olympic, he inspired many athletic stakeholders to announce a campaign for better performance in next games to be held in Tokyo, Japan in 2020.
Olympian Filbert Bayi tabled his campaign by recruiting young runners from Singida Region who would be further groomed to run in various long distance races in all major events.
A few days later, Lwiza John, the winner of a bronze and a gold medal in All Africa Games and Afro Asian Games unveiled her plan to recruit best middle distance runners in Southern Highlands regions preferably in Mbeya and Songwe regions.
The choice of the areas for talent scouting has been based on either a tradition or records, but they could explore further than those areas. It was also astonishing that field events have not been considered, perhaps the story of the Kenyan javelin thrower, Julius Yego can teach us something.
As the world strongly believe that Caribbean islands Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica are known for sprinters, not long races which are said to be East Africa domain. While Tanzanians have lost interest in javelin, Kenyan Julius Yego, was a medal favourite in Rio.
The Kenyan has the best story to tell Tanzanians how he managed to be a master of javelin throwing. Yego learned to throw a javelin entirely through watching online videos, a story which has earned him the tag of “The YouTube Man” in his homeland.
He told reporters:”You can’t compare the feeling of throwing a javelin, getting it just right and seeing it fly,” Yego says. “That’s just perfection. It’s why I tell people that javelin lives inside me, it’s my lifeblood.
I’ve always believed this ever since I first started. I think I have a natural feel for it.” Yego comes from a background where there were no roads, no cars, no electricity. Everyone ran barefoot to school.
So he and his schoolmates would cut and shape javelins from the branches of trees. Yego is Nandi from a tribe famed for producing long distance runners. But he defied that tradition to become a successful javelin thrower.
Yego’s determination can also inspire our athletes to achieve the same. But given the country’s historic lack of success in field events, Tanzania like Yego’s country Kenya, has no coaches who can help athletes train professionally.
Self teaching could be the answer to that. From what performances of Marekwa and the late Kisava evidenced, it’s the time for Tanzanian, sports bodies and athletes themselves to learn and engage themselves in all fields of Olympic Games.
From what Yego told reporters, he said in 2009, he went to the local cyber cafe and began to search for javelin videos on YouTube, specifically those of his heroes Andreas Thorkildsen, the Olympic champion in Athens and Beijing, and 2007 world champion Tero Pitkamaki. He said he studied their technique and what they did and tried to repeat it the following day in his training. J
avelin experts say javelin requires technique, power, flexibility and speed and there were many of these aspects Yego had never looked at. Andreas was extremely powerful but he also had the flexibility of a gymnast. So I began working on things like that and it worked. My distances started to increase.”
The revelation from Yego despite carrying out a big message on bravery, innovation and creativity, it ridicule our belief that only long distance races can bring us medals.