19 May 2016

Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) president, Moses Bantsi says he is confident that more athletes will qualify for Rio Olympics, during the national athletics championships to be held at the National Stadium over the weekend.  

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, he said BAA’s  mission was to send a good number of athletes to Rio.

“We are very hopeful that one or two 800 metre runners will hit the qualifying mark over the weekend and we believe that to qualify at 1:46 is not a big deal for our athletes,” he said.

Bantsi said they had invited regional member federations and so far, countries such as South Africa, Lesotho and Zimbabwe had since confirmed their participation during the national athletics championships.

However, he said they were still waiting for Namibia and Zambia to confirm.

With rigid competition from neighbouring countries, he was confident that Botswana athletes would ultimately push hard and record qualifying marks in different disciplines.

Bantsi further said the championships would also be used as qualifiers for Africa Senior Championships in Durban and World Junior Championships to be held in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

On other issues, he said the 2016 national championships did not have a sponsor after Senn-Food had pulled out due to economic meltdown. “We are going to continue with the championships without a sponsor and we will use the little resources we have at our disposal,” he said.

Athletics coach, Justice Dipeba said people should come and watch Botswana’s crème de la crème at the National Stadium.

He said athletes were in good shape and they had prepared very well for the competition adding that he was confident that they would give the spectators a very good show.

Some of the athletes to watch on include amongst others Karabo Sibanda, Baboloki Thebe, Karabo Mothibi, and Boitumelo Masilo, while Lydia Jele, Tsaone Sebele, Christine Botlogetswe, Galefele Moroko and Goitseone Seleka are expected to mesmerise the audience on different women categories. ENDS