HOLILI: Athletics duo to compete in South Afica

Holili Youth Club (HAYC) athletics duo of Paschal Mombo and Deo Lazaro are expected to board a flight to Johannesburg next week to compete in the Nedbank championships.

HAYC founder Domitian Genand said the duo will leave the country on Friday next week and stay in South Africa up to September where they will also be attending trainings with Nedbank Athletics Club and  competitions.

He said the duo will compete at various competitions and Mombo will first compete in 25 kilometre race on April 28 in Pretoria while Lazaro will compete in another event in May at a date to be announced later. 

“We are in the process of building up a strong working relationship with the Nedbank Athletics Club of South Africa, as you know two of our athletes are there competing next and the other two athletes will travel to South Africa where they will stay up to September, it’s a good development as they will be training at the same time competing in various events”, he said.

Manager for the South Africa Athletics Club Nick Bester said he is pleased with the performance of the two Tanzania athletes Lameck Msiwa and Furaha Kabaya who are currently with the club.

“They are good young athletes who are always eager to learn and they are also performing well at events which they have competed, last week both were top at the events which they took part”, he said.

Meanwhile, Genand has praised his HAYC runner Ismail Juma who emerged on position 9 at the World Cross Country Championships held in Beijing last weekend.

He said although the results are not very good, he is happy as it has shown that HAYC is working hard to produce athletes who can bring pride and honors to the nation. Genand said Juma’s performance has motivated them to work extra hard so as to produce many athletes who can bring medals to the country from international events.

“As a club we are very happy for the performances of Ismail Juma, he has done the club and the country proud, this has proved that Holili Athletics Youth Club is doing a lot to the development of athletics in the country, it’s our hope that the young athletes we have at the club will emulate Juma”, he said. He attributed the performance of Juma and other athletes from his club as due to hard working coaches and the availability of a track for short sprint races.

He said athletes at the club use the track to train regularly. The HYAC director said the venue was constructed after noting that the country has many talented short sprint runners but they are not given opportunity to expose their talents.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN