01 Jun 2016

Botswana National Olympic Committee, (BNOC) has implored more companies to come on board, including with sponsorships to assist with the final preparations for team Botswana that will be representing the country in Rio Olympic Games.

Speaking during  a press conference on May 31, BNOC chief executive officer, Tuelo Serufho said they  already had an offer which they are still discussing  from a private company . Details to this, however await finalisation of the matter.

He said government incentives would still remain applicable for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, and any athlete who won a gold medal would pocket  P100 000, for silver medal  is P75 000 and for bronze medal the incentive was P 50 000.

On other issues, Serufho said significant milestones had already been reached, where for the first time in otswana Olympic history more than one woman had qualified for the Olympic Games, bringing to three the total number of women qualified for an edition of the Olympic Games.

In addition, he said Botswana would for the first time field a full contingent of athletes allowed in a single event, three males in the 400m athletics event. Two athletes have also qualified for more than one event being Baboloki Thebe and Isaac Makwala. A swimmer has for the first time qualified for the Olympic Games.

“Besides the individual qualifiers, Botswana has also secured a place in the men’s 4 x 400 m relay. 

The team will comprise the best six  400 metre runners in Botswana at the time of selection just before the games,” he said.

He explained that a country may enter up to three  qualified athletes for each event on the athletics programme, adding  they could enter a maximum of one  reserve or alternate athlete for the same event, provided they  had achieved the entry standard.

For the relay team, Serufho said a country was expected to enter one team for each relay event. 

He said a total of six athletes may be entered for a relay team. Ends