Bayi is now the general secretary of the Tanzania Olympic Committee (TOC) and has hit back at criticisms aimed at them after they again failed to win a medal at the Games in Beijing last year.

 

It was their seventh consecutive Olympics without a medal.

 

In fact, Tanzania have only ever won two Olympic medals since making their debut as Tanganyika at Tokyo in 1964.

 

Both those medals came at the Moscow Games in 1980 when Suleiman Nyambui and Bayi himself claimed silver in the 5,000 metres and 3,000m steeplechase respectively.

 

The best performance from Tanzania's team of 10 in Beijing was by Fabiano Joseph Naasi, who finished ninth in the 10,000m.

 

Adding to Tanzania's disappointment was the fact that their East African neighbours Kenya enjoyed their most successful ever Olympics, winning a record 14 medals, including five gold.

 

Bayi said: "People have been blaming us, but the TOC is not responsible to prepare the athletes."

 

Bayi claimed that it is the national federations who have not done enough.

 

He said: "Without practical strategies they will keep on faltering and cite wrong excuses."

 

Bayi said that preparations for the London 2012 Olympics must start now.

 

He said: "They have plenty of time to hone the athletes, so we don't expect them to give us usual excuses."

 

Poor preparations caused by lack of financial support have regularly been offered by federations for their lack of success.

 

Bayi said: "We train them [the federations] on sports marketing and many other courses, but they ignore us and continue complaining about financial difficulties.

"They have to wake up from deep slumber and find ways to attract sponsors.

 

"The TOC neither sponsors nor sets up strategies for them - our duty is to oversee them when it comes to the international events.

 

"When they contest various posts, they make a number of promises, but we do not see anything changing."

 

Bayi is one of history's greatest ever middle-distance runners and is best remembered for his performance at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch when he won an epic 1500m in a world record time of 3min 32.2sec, a mark that stood for five years until it was broken by Britain's Sebastian Coe, now the chairman of London 2012.

 

A year later Bayi set a world record for the mile of 3:51.0.

 

But he was denied his opportunity of winning an Olympic gold medal in 1976 when Tanzania joined the African boycott of the Montreal Games over New Zealand's rugby links with South Africa.

 

Instead he was forced to watch as John Walker, the New Zealander he had beaten in the Commonwealth Games, claimed the gold medal.