23 May 2017

Six Batswana athletes have been selected for the Commonwealth Games Federation Grant towards their expenses in preparation for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Briefing Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) affiliates at the ordinary general assembly on Saturday, BNOC chief executive officer (CEO), Tuelo Serufho said the six athletes were 800 metres runner Boitumelo Masilo, boxer Keamogetse Kenosi and Rajab Otukile and Theo Pelonomi of squash.

Furthermore, he said the Olympic Solidarity continental support grant had approved their application for US$100 000  which was the maximum amount a national Olympic committee could qualify for under the continental programme for the period 2017 to 2020.

He said they had already identified six athletes to benefit under the grant and they are 400 metres runners, Baboloki Thebe, Karabo Sibanda, Isaac Makwala, Onkabetse Nkobolo and 800 metres runner, Nijel Amos and high jumper, Kabelo Kgosiemang.

Serufho said most of the athletes receiving both the CGF scholarships and continental support grant continued to do well, adding that the majority of track athletes made it into the team that recently competed at the World Relays in Bahamas, and that most of them have already qualified for the World Championships set to take place in London in August.

He noted that the men’s 4x400m relay team secured the country’s first ever medal at a world level competition, and that the women’s team finished in sixth position, thereby breaking the national record, and that both teams qualified for the World Championships.

“It is worth highlighting that with both the CGF scholarships and the continental grant, the BNOC reserves the right to, and will in fact replace any poor performing athlete with those not originally on the list but performing well. Equally, for the impending Tokyo 2020 scholarships, there will be possibilities of athletes being replaced on account of, inter alia, poor performance, ill-discipline and/or doping,” he said.

Talking about the employment of coaches, he said Mogomotsi Otsetswe of athletics had been given a new contract effective February 2017. He said the contract was up to December 2018, adding that the coach was now based in Gaborone and working with some of the country’s top athletes such as Thebe, Sibanda, Amantle Montsho and Boitumelo Masilo amongst others.

As for netball, he said Kate Carpenter, the netball coach from New Zealand whom the BNOC had contracted to assist Team Botswana in preparations for the World Youth Cup that Botswana would be hosting in July, continued to work with the local head coach to drill Team Botswana.

He said Botswana netball has made tremendous improvement and that it was hoped that Botswana would be competitive at the games.

Briefing affiliates about the Olympic Day celebration to be held on July 6 in Sowa Town, he said preparations were ongoing and that it was expected that refugees at the Dukwi camp would be involved in this year’s Olympic Day celebrations due to their proximity to the host town.

The BNOC, he said, was taking a cue from the IOC that has started supporting and involving refugees in sport, as seen during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games where they competed at the games for the first time. ENDS