World Footy News

Tanzanian marathon runner Samson Ramadhani took gold at this year's Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, but will be bringing a footy back home along with his medal. Ramadhani was sighted practicing his kicking with other members of the Tanzanian team at the games village after the team were donated two balls by Aussie Rules travel group the Convicts.

The following report appeared in Melbourne newspaper The Age. Photo courtesy of the Convicts.

Tanzanian champ catches AFL fever
March 27, 2006 - 4:49PM
Original source: AAP

Marathon champion Samson Ramadhani will leave Melbourne with a gold medal.

But one wonders what the Tanzanian will treasure more: the medal or his footy.

Ramadhani cruised to victory in the men's marathon at the Commonwealth Games, ahead of Kenya's Fred Mogaka Tumbo and England's Daniel Robinson.

He spent his final hours at the athletes village enjoying a game of kick-to-kick with his compatriots and emergency services personnel.

Australian Convicts, an organisation which promotes Australian rules football overseas, donated two balls to the Tanzanian athletes to take home.

Ramadhani said he had not seen Aussie Rules before arriving in Melbourne for his first Games.

"I didn't know before I came here and this is the first time I have played, so I have been taught while I have been here," he said, speaking through an interpreter.

"I like the style of it."

He said he was keen show off his newly acquired footy skills to his wife, one-year-old son and friends in Arusha, in northern Tanzania.

Ramadhani is a police officer in Arusha, where the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda sits.