11 Apr 2016

Keatlaretse Mabote (26) has qualified for the 2016 Rio Paralympics. 

He will be the only official paralympic athlete to represent Botswana at the Paralympics in Rio, Brazil in September.

Mabote qualified for the 200m and 400m T 12 classifications races, after scooping two bronze medals at the Tunis international Para athletics meet Grand Prix in March.

He ran 24.22s in the 200m race, coming third to Morocco and Mozambique athletes. He also ran 54.22s for third position after Ethiopia and Morocco athletes.

President of Paralympics Association of Botswana (PASSOBO), Shirley Keoagaile, said Mabote had to go through the classification process.

“Our athletes do not automatically qualify in any games, they have to pass classification process, and if they fail it, they will not race or be allowed to compete at the Paralympics” explained Keoagaile.

She explained that there were no qualified classifiers in Botswana and most times they relied on classification in South Africa. 

Therefore they went to Tunis, where a team of professional classifiers was provided by the international paralympic committee.

Keoagile said Mabote was a victim of such limited services, hence not making it to the previous Paralympics in 2012. She said they previously went to Tunis for the same classifiers.

However, the athlete was not successful.

Despite the shortcoming they faced, she said this time around they prepared themselves to make sure the athlete triumphed

Coach, Raj Rathedi, showered Mabote with praises saying he was an easy athlete to work with.

He said Mabote’s character made it easy for them to work together.

He said his speciality was the 400m and they made him run the 200m for purposes of his training, which they believed would help him.

“For me this was the most difficult task in my entire career to train him prior to Tunis, although he had qualified he had not been classified and he had to go there despite his shortcoming there previously” he said.

He said going there only created a negative feeling inside him, because he thought the Tunisan people did not like him, hence not qualifying, despite running good times.

However, things turned out good for them, considering the results they came back home with.

He also said they had a combined camp with BAA athletes.

 He further said he was happy with the progress made by Mabote, adding that their schedule will boost his form. Ends