15 May 2014

The anticipation is over, anxiety rules the day, pending only is the blow of a whistle to start the long awaited African Youth Games.

Come next week, athletes from 54 African countries will descend in Botswana for the second annual youth spectacle whose preparations locally have long started. So far various local sponsors have already contributed in cash and kind, while the main actors- athletes- have been carefully selected.

Only one thing, just one, was left; a word of encouragement, kind of morale booster from national leaders. 
Acting Minister of Youth Sports and Culture, Vincent Seretse on May 15 met with some of the 197 Botswana athletes at Oasis Motel in Tlokweng to deliver a national “good luck.”


Minister Seretse said the nation was hopeful that Team Botswana would make the country proud by winning medals. Sport, he said, was akin to war because the main intention was winning. “In this country we believe that sport can make a difference, sport can change lives,” he said.

Players, he said, should “give it their all” optimising home ground advantage while coaches should give the teams an extra energy in order to make a difference. Mr Seretse asked the athletes to be friendly because anything they do would reflect on their parents and country. 


Also giving a word of advice to the athletes was the chairperson of Botswana National Sports Council (BNSC) Solly Reikeletseng who emphasised on the issues of anti-doping.

He said athletes should be careful of what they receive as a token of generosity from other people because it could be containing drugs. He advised the young athletes to take the anti-doping education serious because it would implicate positively in their lives as sports people. 


He also asked the athletes to listen to their coaches and medics and take the opportunity as an honour because it would be the most fulfilling moment of their lives. “You have been given the custodianship to stand for the country, it is your time to shine and opportunity to excel,” Reikeletseng said to the athletes. 


For his part, the president of Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) Negroes Kgosietsile advised the coaches not to push the athletes too hard as they were being groomed for the future.

Team Botswana will be among the 2500 athletes who will compete in 21 sport codes against 54 African countries on May 22 in Gaborone. ENDS