BILLED as an all-important, potentially scintillating football clash between two greatly ambitious teams, Simba SC hosted South African side Stellenbosch FC last Sunday in the first leg of their high stakes CAF Confederations Cup semifinal.

With the first leg taking place at the grand Amaan Complex in Zanzibar in front of an unmistakably partisan home crowd, the stage seemed set for a peach of a game.

In what was a hard-fought football contest, Jean Ahoua’s impeccably taken free-kick prior to half-time ultimately proved to be the decisive strike that handed Simba a crucial victory.

Nevertheless, while Simba’s first leg triumph should be rightly lauded, it is still admittedly a razor-thin lead which could be blasted to smithereens in the second leg in South Africa this coming weekend.

In light of that, it is hoped that Simba will not exhibit any braggadocio in the second leg as such excessive confidence could result in them shooting themselves in the foot.

Ergo, this writer wishes Simba the very best of luck and one hopes dearly that the football gods will be on our side come D-Day.

While not wishing to repeat myself ad nauseam, I still feel that it is deeply important to shine the spotlight on our preparations for the 2028 Olympic Games, which are presently proceeding at a glacial speed.

Indeed, some quarters may feel that it is still too early for us to begin fretting over our Olympic Games preparations.

However, it should be recalled that multiple countries begin to engage in their preparations for the quadrennial, eye-catching multi-sport spectacle almost immediately after the conclusion of the previous mega Olympic Games.

Unarguably, the truth of the matter is that we have a longstanding lackadaisical attitude to our Olympic preparations, which has indisputably cost us dearly in the past.

It should be noted here that we have been in the wilderness since 1980, which was the last time that we claimed a medal at the Olympics that were held in Moscow that year.

It seems crystal clear then that we urgently need to dramatically change our modus operandi where our Olympic preparations are concerned.

Indeed, if we fail to do that, we could be setting ourselves up for even more shoddy displays on global sports’ biggest stage.

Having put that issue to bed, let us now turn to the greatly entertaining sport of beach handball, which continues to go from strength to strength.

According to recent media reports, the IHF Men’s Youth Beach Handball World Championship will take place this year in Tunisia and excitingly, Tanzania will be partaking in the competition for the first time.

Indeed, it is easy to picture in one’s mind handball players moving with speed and athleticism as they determinedly seek to score goals in beach handball.

At the greatly awaited competition, Tanzania has been drawn in Group B which consists of Germany, Hungary and our next-door neighbours Kenya.

Thus, even though our boys will be entering into uncharted waters at the global Youth Beach Handball Championship, one still expects that they will strain every sinew in a bid to excel at the sporting event.