Minister for Information, Youth, Culture and Sports, Amos Makala

Tanzania Olympic team comprising eleven people boarded a London-Heathrow flight yesterday ahead of the Games that gets underway on July 27.

 has departed for London today with high confidence to bring gold medal that has missed in the country for 32 long years

Six of the eleven people are athletes   and he rest are officials.
 Those who left yesterday include boxer Suleiman Kidunda and swimmer Magdalena Moshi. The rest are marathon trio of   Mohamed Msenduki, Samson Ramadhani and Faustine Mussa, save for middle distance runner Zakia Mrisho.

The team was flagged off by the Deputy Minister for Information, Youth, Culture and Sports Amos Makala at a hotel in Dar es Salaam on Saturday.

Three coaches, team doctor and head of delegation Hassan Jarufu complete the line up for the trip.
 
Athletic team coached by Zachariah Gwandu has pledged to fight hard and win medal for the country.

Tanzania is still searching for an Olympic medal since the last ones were won by  Suleiman Nyambui and Filbert Bayi during the Moscow Olympics that America boycotted to compete.

Marathon hopes are pinned to Mohamed Msenduki who recently excelled at show held in Germany last April

“I have never represented my country in Olympics, this is my first time”,   said Msenduki.

Zakhia Mrisho has called Tanzanians to pray for her and excel.

 Boxing coach Remy Ngabo said he has prepared well for the Games.

Meanwhile swimmer Magdalena Moshi vowed to do all her best. She admitted that swimmers from Australia, USA and Europe are ahead in the run for gold.

The director of sports Leonard Thadeo took trouble to escort the Olympic hopefuls at the Julius Nyerere International Airport. Thadeo reminded them of the comments they were given by the deputy minister during the flagging off ceremony a day before.