13 Oct 2015

There are those birds that cannot be caged. Their feathers are just too bright to be kept hidden. There are those among us who fall in order to rise up even higher. Gontse Sechele was once caged but managed to be free . He once fell and was able to rise up to new heights a few only reach.

He was caged because in this country body building is still a sport that is not known and where very little is known about it. 

He fell when he lost his greatest supporter and his mother after she had battled for a while with esophageal cancer.

Breaking out of his cage, he flew like a bird that just got freed and reached heights bodybuilders in Botswana wish to see themselves reach. 

To his portfolio he has won Mr Botswana a local competition for body builders organized mainly by Major Muscle and fitness a firm that deals mostly with supplements in 2009, 2011 and 2012. Still on the same competition he came 2nd in 2010 and 2013.

Just recently he came back from Pretoria with a Gold medal which he won in men’s class 2 category for National Amateur Bodybuilding Association in South Africa. 

The second stage will be held in Durban sometimes this month if he wins he will be selected for world championships competition.

 Last year 2014 Sechele came 3rd at the World Championship in Korea which he says gave him a lot of exposure and experience which he will use this time around in the World Competition.

Anyone who ever thinks about Botswana would never ever think about Bodybuilding but thanks to people like Gontse Sechele who are determined to put Botswana on the map.

For Gontse Sechele who is now 30 it was in Tonota when he was schooling in Shashe River Senior School that he decided to start transforming his body in to ones he always saw only in magazines.

He would look at men with 6 packs and think, “why can’t I just be like them?” He was tired of feeling like a toothpick compared to everyone else. He probably took things too far and began lifting homemade weights.

“In my eyes I was nothing.Afraid to show my arms, or take my shirt off, my confidence went down the drain among my peeps.” He recalls. Since packing on muscle he has become a lot more comfortable and confident with himself.

 After finishing his senior school he found himself in the hands of  Mossi Bannister who saw Sechele as a little diamond that needed a little light to shine and so he shone a little light on him and from there on he shone like a diamond he was, that people looked at and wanted to be like it. 

Bannister assisted the young sechele to go to Zimbabwe and learn more about the sport and enter his early shows.

Before long Sechele showed Bannister that he was truly a diamond in the sky when he won the Mr Botswana in 2009 which was his first success. The win opened his eyes and he dreamed of even reaching new heights.

He started having his own clients who wanted a personal trainer and with his body most people wanted him as their trainer. Working from Energym Health Studio in (NABBA) and chosen to represent the team who organizing themselves for the GNC Musclepump WFF Universe Championship in 2014 held in Seoul, Korea.

Here Sechele met many contenders who had experience and were respected in the body building lanes. This did not stop him to get third place medal.

For an amateur like Sechele this was a great victory but since he had gone representing National Amateur Body Building Association Of South Africa (NABBA) instead South Africa received the credit not Botswana. In the chaos of the preparation of the Youth Games, Ministry Of Youth Sport and Culture could not secure him a sponsorship to Seoul.

Even though he fells overlooked in the international events he always somehow manages to outshine them. Ends