21 Mar 2016

Botswana swimmer, Naomi Ruele is the second woman in the country to qualify for Olympic Games, after Amantle Montsho.

Botswana's first appearance was in the 1980 Summer Olympic Games, in Moscow, and since then only Amantle Montsho managed to represent the country in London 2012.

But the nation will have to wait a little longer to see if the swimmer would get a slot, or to be on the safe side she will have to work extra harder and qualify with an A standard 

Ruele competed in the 50 m free style clocking 26.07, which was an Olympic B standard, and should she get a slot at the end, she would join the likes of  Nijel Amos, Isaac Makwala, Onkabetse Nkobolo, Baboloki Thebe and 400x 4 relay team who have since since qualified.

Botswana National Olympic Committee, chief executive officer, Tuelo Serufho said his organisation was pleased that for the first time in the history of  Botswana  sport, an athlete outside of Athletics (track and field) and Boxing has achieved an Olympic Qualification standard, albeit being 'B' standard. 

He said since Botswana started competing at the Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980, the country has only been represented in three codes athletics, boxing and swimming. 

In Swimming, he said  the only appearance has so far been at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, in which instance none of the two swimmers had qualified on their own, but rather got slots courtesy on the 'Universality' arrangement, also known as 'Wild Card'. 

He said the wild card ensure that the Olympic Games are truly universal.  The International Olympic Committee reserves a number of slots across sports on the programme, to be distributed to countries that would have failed to qualify athletes in any sport at all or in respect of certain sports.

“ Because Botswana had not qualified anyone in swimming for Beijing 2008 and also given that the country had qualified very few athletes for the Games on the whole, the country applied for and was offered two swimming wild cards,” he said

He said if Naomi end up going to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games that will be historic in many respects, including that, she would be the first Motswana swimmer to qualify for Olympic Games.

Furthermore, he said it would be the first time a Botswana athlete outside of athletics and boxing would have qualified for the Olympic Games, and she would become the second female Motswana to qualify for an Olympic Games since Amantle Montsho is the only lady to have ever represented Botswana at the Olympic Games.

Serufho said again, Naomi would and be the youngest female Motswana to have qualified for an Olympic Games.

“Naomi will be 19 when the Rio Olympic Games are held while Amantle attained her first Olympic qualification at age 25. Of course it must be mentioned that Amantle first appeared at an Olympic Games at age 21, and that courtesy of the 'Wild Card' arrangement,” he said  

He said while they celebrate the unprecedented development, it was important to support and to push Naomi to upgrade her times to 'A' Standard, which will guarantee her slot at the Rio Olympic Games, or the nation would have to wait for July 3 to know if she had slot. 

Serufho said there were 900 athlete places for the swimming competitions at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, adding a maximum of two athletes are allowed per swimming event per country. 

He said once 'A' standard times have been considered on the maximum representation principles, the number of slots left will be allocated to athletes with 'B' standard times, guided by amongst other things; athletes'  FINA rankings, having competed at the last World Championships as a pre-condition and no athletes from countries under consideration having already qualified on 'A' times. 

He however said for now Naomi's prospects look quite good at she competed in the last World Championships. Ends