17 Jun 2014

Botswana’s team of five badminton players arrived on June 16 from Mauritius where they impressed in the highly regarded Mauritius International.

The Mauritius International also featured teams from Malaysia, Germany, Austria, France, India, New Zealand, Italy and Slovakia.

Ladies doubles team of Botho Makubate and Bonolo Amos won a bronze medal, which marked yet another milestone for the Botswana Badminton Association (BBA).

BBA spokesperson, Mabaki Kelailwe said in an interview that it was a significant achievement which came at the right time when the association desired to send the whole team to the Commonwealth games.

“We believe this will help our case with the BNOC board as in the last two months we participated in three tournaments and won four bronze medals,” he said.

However, Kelailwe said the unfortunate news was that Botswana’s number one and Africa’s number three, Gaone Tawana got injured in his first round match and was forced to retire when he was leading 13/8.

He was clearly on his way to the second round when he twisted his ankle. Kelailwe said Tawana suffered a minor fracture which was treated at a local hospital and they expected him to be back in two weeks’ to start light training. ENDS