28 Oct 2015

Botswana 400 metre hurdler, Oarabile Babolayi  is making waves at Missouri State University, where she was recently recognised as the best third year-junior track athlete of the year.

Babolayi who is based and studying in the United States also won the MVP athlete of the year, the award given to an athlete who contributed more points at conference championships on the track.

Last season was one of her best as she  broke the 10 years school record in the 60 m hurdles when she recorded 8:51 seconds, she  also ran the third fastest time in school history in 100m hurdles, clocking a national record of 13:57 seconds. 

She is currently the reigning Missouri valley conference 400m hurdles champion.

In an interview with BOPA, she said after every indoor and outdoor NCAA Division 1 season the school always have a banquet to recognise athletes’ achievements and she won double recently.

The awards, she said was a motivation and she will continue to work harder to be the best, given that it is not all athletes who manage to excel and ultimately win awards.

“This means everything to me, it makes me push myself even harder so as to be the best that I can possibly be. 

The competition here is really tough, but from first year till now, I would say I have come a long way and I am proud of myself,” she said.

Babolayi further said her aim was to qualify for Rio 2016 Olympic Games, and during her stay in America  she will  keep on working hard and using every opportunity that is at her disposal  qualify for the 400m hurdles.

She said her coach Ronald Boyce is aware of her intentions of qualifying adding that what makes her happy was the fact that, they are both working hard to ultimately achieve their mission.

Babolayi is currently on a track and field scholarship at Missouri State University studying Psychology, Bachelor of Science with a minor in Bio-Medical Science, and she is in her final year and will be graduating in May 2016. Ends