29 Dec 2015

Indeed the year 2015 was a very successful year in Botswana sport, despite some hurdles men and women who have volunteered as sport administrators ensured that all went well and Botswana flag was hoisted both locally and at international events.

The highlight of the year was when Botswana 400 metre runner Onkabetse Nkobolo qualified for Rio 2016 in style.

Nkobolo who is based in Spain on a  three-year scholarship deal with Ali Centre, pulled a surprise when he emerged from nowhere and recorded 45.34 at  the 33rd Meeting Madrid 2015,after finishing on position two, booking himself a place at the World Championships and Rio 2016.

Nkobolo who was overshadowed by Isaac Makwala in the 400 metres, stamped his authority again at Beijing World Championships when he clocked 45.17, that was when Batswana started to take notice of him. As if that was not enough, he won silver at the African Games held at Congo, Brazzaville where he also helped the 4x400 m men’s relay team to clinch the silver medal.

Currently, Nijel Amos of 800 metres, Isaac Makwala, Onkabetse Nkobolo of 400 metres and 4x400 metres men relay have qualified for Rio 2016.

One notable zenith was when Isaac Makwala shocked the world as he claimed back his African record title with a spectacular performance of 43:72 at  Resisprint meeting in the Swiss city of La Chaux-de-Fonds.

That came after, South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk broke Makwala’s African record of 44.01 with 43.96 at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Paris. However Niekerk took the African record holder at the World Championship recording 43.48.

Nijel Amos' good performance in the international stage continued to blossom despite failing to make it to the World Championship finals in Beijing, he went on to redeem his pride but defending the Diamond League 800 m championship, and winning a gold medal at the African Games was ‘icing in the cake’ for the Marobela born.

Another 2015 climax was Botswana good performance at the 11th African Games, that were held in Congo Brazzaville where Botswana a thletes managed to scoop 14 medals in total with athletics topping the table with three gold, two silver and one bronze, followed by Karate with one silver and four bronze, Boxing managed to win two bronze, while swimming only one silver.

Whereas at Commonwealth Youth Games, were in Samoa, team Botswana won three medals which are Botswana’s best performance ever at a Commonwealth Youth Games, since in its first CYG in 2008 in Delhi.

The gold medal was won by Karabo Sibanda in the 400 metres flat race, the other gold was won by 4 x100 metres boys relay which was made of Sibanda, long jumper Kabo Mphali, Thabiso Sekgopi and Aobakwe Malau, while Mahommed Rajab Otukile won a bronze medal for Botswana in the 49kg.

The other highlight was when Botswana Special Olympics brought home a total of 20 medals from the International Special Olympic Games which were held in Los Angels in July.

Team Botswana had sent 40 athletes to compete in athletics, swimming, football and volleyball.

The team managed to win four gold medals, 10 silver medals and six bronze medals, while football lost 5-0 to Egypt.

The peak of 2015 was when Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) appointed former 400 metre runner Obakeng Ngwigwa as  technical director.

He is the first Motswana to serve at that level in continental sport and some of  his roles include amongst others  monitoring  Olympic solidarity programme entitled to the 54 African member countries and to monitor the uptake of that programme by African  National Olympic Committees (NOCs). 

Netball

Botswana Netball Association launched their Local Organising Committee that will ensure Netball World Youth Cup 2017 games that will be hosted by Botswana are a success.

International Netball Federation (INF) board hold their meeting in Botswana and also toured venues and facilities that BONA was targeting to use in 2017.

The INF boss was confident that BONA will deliver the games given that the association has been giving them progress report every three months. The 2017 competition will attract 20 countries in the world that will qualify.

Football

Despite the fact that  football was marred with controversy at club level, such as  issues of commercialisation of  big soccer clubs, to an extent where Township Rollers ownership was resolved at the high court, Mochudi Centre Chiefs and Gaborone United issues are also looming, at national team level, the Zebras performance was something to write about.

The Zebras moved to Francistown Sports Complex made it their slaughter house, first they humiliated one of Africa’s power house Burkina Faso 1-0 in 2017 AFCON qualifiers in September, then followed Eritrea in FIFA 2018 World Cup qualifiers where they taught them some football techniques and beat them 3-1.

Zebras continued to prove that Francistown Sport Complex ‘the home of the Zebras’ when they nipped Mali 2-1 in the World Cup qualifiers, that was the first time in the history of Botswana football, Zebras managed to beat Mali,however the Zebras saw dust in the second leg when they were eliminated by Mali from the qualifiers.

Finally Botswana Premier Clubs have been instructed to comply with the club’s licensing system or face repercussions. For the clubs to comply they will have to submit audited financial statements, a development side, and contract of lease agreement with stadiums of their choice by August 01.

Boxing

It was another bumper year for local pugilists after impressive performances locally and on the international scene. Botswana won the regional Zone IV tournament held in South Africa with a record six gold and four silver medals before travelling to the Northern African state of Morocco for the closely contested Africa Championships.

Gold medals were won by 56kg Kefentse Molalapata, 60kg Kabelo Bagwasi, 64kg Kagiso Bagwasi, 69kg Mmusi Tswiige, 75kg Zibani Chikanda and 81kg Thabang Motsewabeng.

While Tefo Rammupudu, 49kg, Thabiso Mpolokeng, 52kg, Koketso Dipugiso 51kg, Pearl Morake 69kg won silver for the country.

The local boxers got position four out of 16 countries and Zibani Chikanda together with Kagiso Bagwasi qualified for the 50th Africa Games played in Congo Brazzaville after winning silver and bronze respectively. Botswana Boxing Association (BoBA) sent the junior team to the Fifth Commonwealth Youth Games where sensational boxer Mohamed Otukile scooped bronze. On the local scene DTCB boxing club continued to shine at the annual BoBA National championships.

International Working Group on Women and Sport (IWG)

The IWG launched the HeForShe campaign and Botswana National Sports Commission chairperson Solly Reikeletseng was appointed as the HeForShe in Sport campaign champion

Reikeletseng made a commitment to mobilise 200 men within the 16 days of activism against gender based violence and a 1 000 by the end of December 2015 to take action and sign up for the campaign and he announced they have set a new target to reach 20 000 by December 2016. Ends