President Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan has congratulated Athlete, Alphonse Simbu for becoming the World Champion of the Tokyo Marathon and that he will continue to prioritize the sports sector so that it can contribute more to growing the country’s economy and increasing the scope for youth employment.
The congratulations were given by Prime Minister, Kassim Majaliwa on September 27, 2025 when he represented President Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan at an event to congratulate athletes and teams that performed well in international arenas. The event was held in Dar es Salaam.
Mr. Majaliwa said the President. Dr. Samia has gifted Athlete Simbu a house in Dodoma and handed over 20 million shillings as a sign of recognition of the victory that has brought honor to the Nation on the international stage.
Mr. Majaliwa said that Athlete Simbu has written a unique page by becoming the first Tanzanian to win a gold medal in the 2025 World Marathon
“This is the biggest athletics competition in the world after the Olympic Games, involving the best athletes from all over the world”, he said
He said that the Government has always made sufficient efforts to ensure that the Sports sector contributes to the Nation. The results we are witnessing right now are the result of the huge investment made by the Government including the renovation of stadiums and the increase in the budget from 38 billion shillings in 2022 to 326 billion in 2025/2026.
In another step, Mr. Majaliwa has called on sportspeople in the country to put personal efforts in participating in sports as victory can be achieved by setting a goal “Develop victory strategies so that you can fly the flag of our Nation internationally”, he said
And the PRESIDENT of the Athletics Federation of Tanzania (SRT) Rogath Stephen has thanked the Government for the way it makes a great contribution to the associations and the way it promotes the Games.
“We have never been subjected to the things that are currently being done, through the Government we have been served in a unique way”, he said
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Information, Culture, Arts and Sports Gerson Msigwa said that Alphose Simbu’s gold medal has successfully satisfied the thirst of Tanzanians to win gold medals in international sports.
“This has been possible due to the decisions of our leaders to have a vision to restore respect for the Nation after making a major investment in the sport”, he said
He said the biggest remaining thirst is to ensure that Tanzanians win medals at the Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games
“We as a Government have planned to ensure that we succeed in bringing these medals home, we are putting in place strong management strategies, for now, having escorts is enough, We believe that next year we can get media at the Commonwealth Games and in 2028 we will win medals at the Olympics”, he said
Other teams that were congratulated and given a prize of 10 million shillings are the National Women’s Futsal Team which has qualified to participate in the World Cup (Philippines 2025), the JKT Queens Team who are champions of the CAF Woman’s Championship League Cecafa Qualifiers 2025.
The other teams are the National Cricket U-19 team which will participate in the 2026 World Cup in Zimbabwe and the disabled team (Tembo Worriers) who have been the Second Winner of the East African Games and Middle.
