06 Nov 2014

Five athletes will benefit from Olympic Solidarity scholarships for elite athletes towards preparations for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Although Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) had submitted 15 applications to Olympic Solidarity, only Naomi Ruele of swimming, Kabelo Kgosiemang of high jump, Pako Seribe and Isaac Makwala for 400 metres and Commonwealth 800 metres champion, Nijel Amos have successfully secured scholarship to train towards qualifying.

Speaking at the announcement of the scholarships on Wednesday, November 5 BNOC acting chief executive officer, Lame Ramokate said this was Botswana’s highest allocation of scholarship to be received in the highly competitive programme. 

She said the scholarships would provide the athletes with full support towards their training and competition needs in the lead up to the Olympic Games. Ramokate said her organisation did well in accessing Olympic Solidarity towards the athletes’ development. 

She said the scholarship fully covers boarding, lodging, training, coaching as well as sports science and medicine costs. Ramokate noted that the Olympic Solidarity mission is to organise assistance to National Olympic Committees particularly those with the greatest need. 

The support, she added was in the form of programmes, elaborated jointly by the International Olympic Committee and the National Olympic Committees. Botswana Swimming Sport Association (BSSA) president, Sally Leppan appreciated the support to different sporting codes and athletes by both BNOC and IOC.

“RIO 2016 seems far distance away but it is imperative for all stakeholders to know that it will be here soon. I have no doubt that the supporting structures given to athletes by BNOC will put them in a very good position to qualify for RIO 2016,” she said.

She encouraged all athletes to work hard as people are eagerly waiting to see the qualification times, which they will record.

On behalf of the beneficiaries, Makwala said they appreciated the scholarship, and he was confident that all athletes who were part of the programme would qualify for the RIO 2016. “We are going to train very hard because we don’t want to disappoint you. We are going to qualify so that we represent our country at the Olympic Games,” he said. ENDS