14 Aug 2017

The women’s 4x400 metres athletes made history by qualifying for the World Championship final at the just-ended IAAF World Championships.

In the semi-finals, the ladies team finished on position three with a national record of 3:26:90 on Saturday.

The ladies proceeded to the final on Sunday evening where they finished on position seven clocking 3:28:00.The women’s relay team is now ranked 7th in the world.

However, the Botswana men’s 4x400 metres relay team failed to secure a place in the final at the IAAF World Championships on Saturday. They finished on position seven with a time of 3:06:50.

A lot was expected from the team following their stunning performance at the IAAF/BTC World Relays Bahamas 2017 at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium in Nassau, where they finished on position two after the USA.

Sports commentators and analysts thought the team would challenge the USA dominance. According to sports journalist, Bapati Mmotlanyane, who has been monitoring Botswana athletes at the competition, the heat line-up was filled with quality, and it was a final before the final.

He said it was always going to be a mammoth task for the team to have it their way despite being tipped as the favourites.

“I think they choked but from the onset Onkabetse Nkobolo had an average split, the execution of our baton exchange was questionable. Baboloki Thebe had a fair run, but ran out of gas and looked to be struggling perhaps because the injury hindered the fluency in his stride, fortunately he managed to finish his split,” he said.

He said after Nijel Amos received the baton from Thebe, he tried to close in on the rest of the leading pack, but that a huge let down was the baton exchange mix up which dented the team’s hopes of even qualifying among the two fastest losers.

“We have to admit that we have a wealth of experience from that team, and you’d hope the baton exchange shouldn’t be that much of a problem, but these things do happen,” he said.

He, however, said it was a learning curve for team Botswana, adding that the line-up was good and that if it was not for the baton exchange mix up the team would have made it to the final.

“We have to respect the coach’s decision, quite often they are grilled when we don’t win, but who gets the glory when we win. They are in a better position to know what best could work for the team. It just wasn’t to be,” he said. Ends