Sport in Tanzania

Filbert Bayi Filbert Bayi Sanka (born June 23, 1953) is a Tanzanian former middle-distance runner who competed throughout the 1970s. He set the world records for 1500 metres in 1974 and the mile in 1975. His world record in the 1500 m was also the Comm ...

and

Suleiman Nyambui Suleiman Nyambui (born February 13, 1953) is a former track athlete from Tanzania who specialized in various long-distance disciplines. Nyambui won the bronze medal at the 1978 All-Africa Games, the silver medal in 5000 metres at the 1980 Summer ...

both won track and field medals in the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...

. Tanzania competes in the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

as well as in the

African Championships in Athletics The African Championships in Athletics is a continental athletics event organized by the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA), the continental association for the sport in Africa. Since its inaugural edition in 1979 it was at first organised ...

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

is widely played all over the country with fans divided between two major clubs,

Young Africans Young Africans Sports Club, commonly referred as Yanga is a Tanzanian professional football club based in Jangwani, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Founded in 1935, the club play their home games at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium. Nicknamed "Yanga" (Yo ...

and

Simba Simba is a fictional character and the protagonist of Disney's ''The Lion King (franchise), The Lion King'' franchise. Introduced in the 1994 film ''The Lion King'', Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Animation's List of Walt Disney Anim ...

. Football is the most popular sport in Tanzania, despite the little success that has been achieved by the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exam ...

. To date, they have never qualified for the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

but have made two appearances in the African Cup of Nations, in 1980, as well as

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. They finished last in their group in both occasions.

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

is also played but mainly in the army and schools.

Hasheem Thabeet Hasheem Thabeet (born Hashim Thabit Manka on 16 February 1987) is a Tanzanian professional basketball player for the Sichuan Blue Whales of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). He played college basketball for UConn before being drafted sec ...

is a Tanzanian-born player with the Oklahoma City Thunder, the first Tanzanian to play in the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

is a rapidly growing sport in Tanzania after hosting the ICC Cricket League Division 4 in 2008; the national team finished the tournament with a win.

Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

is a minor sport in Tanzania. Tanzania now has a

, which used to be part of the East Africa team, but was separated. Another minor but growing sport in Tanzania is

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

Softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

. Tanzania Baseball was introduced by Mr. Shinya Tomonari, a Japan Nationalist and the Chairman of Association for Friends of African Baseball (AFAB), in January 2012. Since then the sport has been played frequently by a number of Secondary Schools in the country and the participating number of students keeps on increasing. On 12 th May 2014, Tanzania Baseball and Softball Association (TaBSA) was established and registered as the National Sporting Association (NSA) responsible for the administration, conduct, control, development and promotion of the sport of baseball in Tanzania, as recognized by the National Sports Council (NSC), the African Baseball and Softball Association (ABSA) and the

World Baseball Softball Confederation World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC; french: Confédération internationale de baseball et softball) is the world governing body for the sports of baseball, softball, and Baseball5. It was established in 2013 by the merger of the Inter ...

the International Sport Federation. {{Sport in Africa