29 Dec 2016

Athletics: Athletics is one of the codes that usually bring joy to Batswana. Athletes are used to bringing home medals from international stage.
2016 was an Olympic year and Batswana had high hopes that the country would win a second medal but that was not to be.
This year athletics had some challenges even though athletes did well in major competitions such as the IAAF World Junior Championships, the 20th CAA African Senior Championships where Baboloki Thebe and Nijel Amos won gold medals in 400m and 800m respectively; their good work was over shadowed by poor performance at the Olympic Games.
Botswana National Olympic Committee had targeted two medals from the Olympic Games but they came back empty handed.
Team Botswana suffered a damaging blow when 400-metre star Thebe was injured. However, his training partner Karabo Sibanda went all the way to the final where he finished in fifth place.

Football: The major highlight for football was the ushering in of a new leadership with Maclean Letshwiti elected Botswana Football Association president, after winning the hotly contested election against then incumbent Tebogo Sebego.
Letshwiti promised to restore peace and dignity to the sport that had been bedevilled by the controversy involving the validity of Township Rollers’ player Ofentse Nato. However, after assuming office the new leader oversaw suspensions of two chief executive officers, Bennett Mamelodi of Botswana Premier League and Kitso Kemoeng of BFA.
Kemoeng has since been shown the door whilst Mamelodi’s case is before the Industrial Court.
Long-time BFA technical officer Philemon Makhwengwe also resigned from his job after serving for close to two decades. The BTC Premiership season also started late and when people thought it was now all systems go, referees boycotted duty demanding payment of their dues resulting in some games being abandoned.  On a positive note, BFA launched a youth development programme aimed at enhancing the standard of football in the country.

Netball: Botswana Netball Association hosted Africa Netball World Youth Cup qualification, and nine countries; Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, battled it out for the Netball World Youth Cup qualification to be staged in Botswana next year.
International Working Group (IWG) In October, Botswana hosted the 2016 Africa Women in Sport conference under the International Working Group (IWG) on Women and Sport.

Volleyball: Mascom Wireless continued to sponsor the national volleyball league, but the company stated that it was doing so for the last time.
The highlight of the league was Police VI winning their maiden league title in the male category. In the women side Kabo Ntshinogang’s Mafolofolo finally dethroned Kutlwano from the top.
Both Ntshinogang and Shimaka Ngwanaotsile of Police were voted coaches of the season. Alec Engelton of Police and Chada Majaha of Mafolofolo were voted best players in the league.
Tennis: The highlight of tennis was when Phenyo Matong beat Zambia’s Edgar Kazembe in the Botswana Open final in July after producing a great performance.
Despite that the tennis fraternity endured a tough year with Botswana Tennis Association and its affiliates at logger-heads.
In November affiliates threatened to pass a motion of no confidence in the BTA leadership which they accused of over-staying its tenure. They also accused the executive committee of maladministration.

Chess: Chess continued to be one of the best performing sporting codes in the country, holding well-coordinated competitions every month.
The team sent by Botswana Chess Federation to the 2016 Chess Olympiad made the country proud with some fine performances, especially by woman international master Onkemetse Francis. In December the federation sent a junior team to African Schools Chess Championships and they won the competition after garnering nine medals. Eight players from Botswana were awarded FIDE titles after their sterling performances at the event.

Rugby: The senior national team, Vultures performed dismally in the Africa Division 1B tournament, finishing bottom of their group. BDF Cheetahs won the national super rugby title by beating UB Rhinos in the final.

Boxing: The toast of the year for the Botswana Boxing Association (BoBA) was when Eastern Military Garrison’s boxer, Zibani Chikanda was crowned the finest sportsman of the year during the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) Annual awards, beating fierce rivalry from Karate’s Ofentse Bakwadi and 400-metre runner, Isaac Makwala.
On a sad note the national boxing team failed to secure a ticket to the Rio 2016 Games after being knocked out of the preliminaries of the International Boxing Association (AIBA) African Olympic Qualifiers held in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
The association ended yet another year struggling to secure a sponsor for its national championships.
However, diamond mining company, Debswana has come to the rescue of its annual boxing awards. Another highlight of the year for the boxing association was the signing of the Brighton Plus Helsinki Declaration on Women and Sport.
The signing of the declaration is an excellent way to affirm the male dominated sport’s commitment to gender equality.

Karate Not an eventful year for the karatekas, but commendable efforts from Botswana Karate Associations (BOKA)’s affiliates for sending their students to competitive tournaments abroad. Kofukan Federation sent three students to the annual Kofukan World Cup in Sofia, Bulgaria while the Botswana Defence Force sent five athletes to Sydney for the Australian Open.

During the festive break, BOKA sent African Youth Games champion, Thabang Setshego and All Africa Games kata finalist, Lame Hetanang to Hong Kong for an intensive training camp ahead of next year’s Zone VI tournament. Another memorable event in the karate calendar was the visit to Botswana by renowned kata master, Shihan Keiji Tomiyama. Shihan Tomiyama is an 8th dan black belt. ENDS