19 Dec 2017

By Tiroyaone Ramooki

 

GABORONE - There are many children who have the potential to be sport stars but they never even get to start.

Many are born and raised in rural areas with few sporting facilities. There are no gym rooms, no proper facilities and no proper guidance as to how to do it.

But for 18-year-old Tagala Obert the unavailability of all these facilities did not hinder him from engraving his mark in the Botswana track and field games.

Born in 1999 in Ramokgwebana, Tagala is a track and field athlete specialising in long jump. With a personal best of 7.09 m, the 2017 BISA games gold medalist started his involvement in sports at primary school, participating in the 100m, 200m and 400m track races.

It was at junior school that he met his coach, Molefi Ndwapi at Batanani CJSS.

After introducing him to several other sporting codes, Ndwapi realised Tagala’s ability and strength was more on field events such as long jump and triple jump.

He started grooming him in that line and in 2015 as a junior athlete, Tagala’s dedication to the sport started paying off. He competed in the Botswana Games for the first time and took position six in triple jump and position three in long jump.

In this year’s Botswana Games Tagala rose up to position one witha  7.07m jump.

“In 2015 I didn’t have that much of a technique, my couch then pushed me to work on that. I worked hard to be where I am now,” he said. Tagala said in order to keep fit and in shape he has designed a training programme which he follows.

“What I want is to be in the national team and to represent Botswana in the world stages as well as attaining a good position,” Tagala said. Tagala further said training does not require one to use anything complicated or sophisticated as one could use what was readily available in their surroundings and still make it. “If you want to do with limited resources, you can still make it, as an athlete you should use what you have. I am using the grounds I have back home and it works for me,” he said.

On issues of doping, Tagala said his coach has advised and cautioned him against the use of drugs to enhance performance as it would mark the end of his sporting career.

“I have now decided to be very selective on what I drink as an athlete as many drinks contain banned substances,” he said.

For his part, , Ndwapi said if given time, field athletes could prove themselves.

He said most of the time there was concentration on track and that people forget about field events resulting in Botswana not producing field athletes in international stages. Ndwapi described Tagala as a dedicated athlete who took the sport seriously. He said with coaching and best facilities he sees him going places.

“He is a naturally leader who engages others and doesn’t wait to be told to do a task. If he feels there is need to put in more effort he does so with no hesitation,” he said.

Ndwapi further said Tagala’s understanding of the techniques of the sport were giving him an upper hand over his competitors.

“My fear is that from here he might break for a long time, and it will impact negatively on his growth as an athlete," he said.

He said if it was possible for the athlete to move to a club with better facilities he believed he would go places. “I believe he has a good career ahead of him,” he said. BOPA