01 Mar 2015

Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) has earned international recognition for being able to raise credible sprinters in the likes of Nijel Amos, Amantle Montsho and jumpers Kabelo Kgosiemang, but the code has not been so fortunate in developing distance runners.

To date, the code has not been able to field a distance runner in major competitions such as the Olympics or World Championships. While there had been numerous races in the country, most prizes were scooped by foreign runners who seemed to have turned such competitions into serious business.

At some point, the association seemed to be making an effort as they had the likes of Rapula Diphoko, who was awarded a scholarship at a Kenyan High Performance unfortunately; the runner was given an early exit due to alleged unacceptable behaviour.

That alone thwarted the association’s effort as the sponsorship was supposed to groom Diphoko for the 2012 London Games and Rio 2016 Games. Lately, less has been seen happening on the association’s side and BOPA enquired on what the association was doing to improve this.

Sports View Runners Club and BAA vice president said the issue of long distance was a concern at club and association level. Glody Dube said they had always struggled in middle and long distance due to lack of interest from coaches.  He said although middle distance entails 800m and 1500m, they always made headway in 800m. 

“In the past, it was better because coaches such as Bobby Gaseitsiwe had passion for 800 and 1500m races but since he left the association, nothing has been happening,” he added. Dube said since Tiyapo Maso’s appearance at the Sidney Games in 2000, they had never been able to field any runner to the games, adding that some of the medal hopefuls were grown up and now doing it for fun.

He said the association put emphasis on the importance of races and said they had been educating the public about it. “Presently, Sports View has a crop of promising young runners and we believe that we might produce a runner for Rio Games. We have made it our responsibility to see that we do well in this category,” he said.

Gaborone Runners Club (GRC) president, Zambia Champi said that the issue of road races faces several challenges sparking from athletes’ upkeep to managerial issues.

He said the runners’ needs financial support to enable them to buy training gears, such as running shoes. The coach, who has been organising the race for the past 15 years, revealed that the coordination of middle and long distance had proved to be a mammoth task because there was no coordination from the association, anyone anywhere could plan and invited participants without the association’s consent.

He said some organisers do not adhere to the IAAF set standards, making it difficult for the association to send some representatives to ensure that logistics were in order.

Champi also pointed out the challenge of synchronising events, adding that some races could be used as preparatory games to major competitions. The official said some meets are two weeks apart something that is not fair to athletes, who require breaks in between competitions.

“Athletes want money and it becomes difficult to stop them when you have nothing to offer,” he said. The GRC head said clubs had not been able to prepare runners, a move which requires technical coaches.

“Presently, there are few certified coaches to deal with the situation and to worsen the matter the association has for years not held training courses. Though sport is big business nowadays, some Batswana athletes still view sport as a leisure activity and participate in it to while away time,” he said.

With such a notion, he said drawing a plan would not be of any use especially when the runner is not committed. Champi also credited the decline of competitive runners to some clubs that are not into development of athletes adding time has come for the association to commit clubs to carry a certain number of events each year.

BAA president, Moses Bantsi admitted that they were not winning in middle and long distance races and said they were doing their best to improve the situation. He said they appealed to their mother body Botswana National Sports Council to rope in an experienced coach, as it would be cheaper than sending the runners to foreign centres but BNSC could not be of help as they too faced financial challenges.

He said they have promising youngsters who need proper training plan to explore their skills, as some of them are capable of winning the country some medals. Bantsi believes that introduction of sports levy would assist codes, citing that South African sports is benefitting hugely from the lottery.  The association’s desire is to have a pool of competent runners that they could retain. ENDS