11 Aug 2016

Local athletes take to tracks from today in the ongoing Olypics Games in Brazil.

The Olympic Stadium in Rio de Jenairo is the place to be as the nation’s pride test their strength against the world's finest athletes.

First on the track this afternoon at 319pm will be 800 metres runner Boitumelo Masilo who will be making his Olympics debut.

He will be in heat two against Kenyan Ferguson Rotich, Adam Kszczot of Poland, Rafith Rodríguez of Colombia, Luke Mathews of Australia, Hamada Mohamed  of Egypt, Brice Etès   of Monaco and Andrés Arroyo  of Puerto Rico. Even though he is a green-horn at this level, Masilo is a confident competitor and would not be intimidated by the big names. 

He has nothing to lose and would not be under any pressure. The youngster is aware that he is not in an easy heat and said in an interview that he was prepared for anything.

“I know competition is going to be tough, but I am here to compete. Remember that anything is possible in athletics,” he said.

At 346pm  in heat three Botswana will be represented by London 2012 Olympics silver medallist Nijel Amos. 

The Marobela -born star is fully aware that he is one of the athletes that the nation is pinning its medal hope on.

He is pitted in the starting list against Sho Kawamoto of Japan, Jozef Repčík of Slovakia, Giordano Benedetti  of Italy, Kevin López  of Spain, Jacob Rozani  of South Africa, Taoufik Makhloufi of Algeria, and Mostafa Smaili  of Morocco.

Amos should easily win the heat looking at his competitors. He should even record an impressive time if he is in good shape.

He said in an interview that he would give his best in every race, adding that he has been pushing to cover for the lost time he incurred during his injury.

In the early morning of Saturday, three of Botswana's finest 400 metres runners will be on track. Karabo Sibanda will start in lane seven in heat two at 213am.

He will be up against Matteo Galvan of Italy, Nery Brenes of Costa Rica, Raymond Kibet  of Kenya, Bralon Taplin  of Grenada, Anas Beshr  of Egypt, Mehboob Ali  of Pakistan and Bachir Mahamat of Chad.

In heat four, Baboloki Thebe will face Chris Brown of Bahamas, Martyn Rooney of Great Britain, James Chiengjiek who is a refugee, Luka Janežič  of Slovenia, Lalonde Gordo  of Trinidad and Tobago, Julian Walsh  of Japan and Gustavo Cuesta  of Dominican Republic.

Baboloki will enter the track as a wounded buffalo after he was disqualified from the heats during the recent World Under-20 Championships for lane infringement. His race is at 229am.

Heat five, which will be at 237am is expected to produce a thrilling contest between  Botswana's Isaac Makwala and LaShawn Merritt of United States of America who has been tormenting Makwala in previous races. Other athletes in the heat are Vitaliy Butrym of Ukraine, Abdalelah Haroun of Qatar, Donald Sanford  of Israel, Deon Lendore ( of Trinidad and Tobago and Hederson Estefani  of Brazil.

The ladies will also be on track tomorrow with Lydia Jele and Christine Botlogetswe running the 400m race around 4pm. However, there were no start lists for the event at the time of going to press.

National team coach Justice Dipeba said the team arrived at the Olympic village on Tuesday in good shape.

“Morale is high. They are pumped up and looking forward to the competition. Having been away from the village has helped us a lot in terms of keeping the team focused as sometimes there can be a lot distractions in the village,” he said. Ends