31 Jan 2018

 Athletics national team coach, Mogomotsi Otsetswe has expressed optimism at the end of the Super Night track and field series hosted at the Francistown Sports Complex over the weekend.
 In an interview after the event, he explained that this was the second race of the series and athletes had shown improvement.

 This, he highlighted was shown by the fact that all the top athletes managed to record seasonal bests an indication that they were adapting well to the programme.
 The competitions were used as a qualifier for the Under 20 IAAF world championships in Finland, Africa senior championships in Nigeria, Africa Youth games and Youth Olympics.

Otsetswe further mentioned that Botswana’s elite athletes in Baboloki Thebe, Karabo Sibanda, Isaac Makwala, Nijel Amos and Onkabetse Nkobolo, Amantle Montsho and Christine Botlogetswe have already qualified for the Commonwealth games. He also noted that they were still pushing to have two more ladies qualify for the games.

 However, he observed that of those who participated none achieved qualifying times. “By mid-February we want to have made progress with our preparations but we don’t want to rush athletes into making qualifying times to avoid injuries,” he noted.Leungo Matlhaku of JAC clocked a time of 11.96 in the women’s 100m heat final. In the men’s 100m Baboloki Thebe registered 10.57 coming second to Karabo Mothibi who came first with a time of 10.55.

In another 100m heat final Zibani Nkgosi registered a time of 11.14 ahead of Kgotso Ngengathekwa, while Ibrahim Ashfanati of the Maldives clocked 11.40 with Kemoreng Tisang recording 11.41.Christine Botlogetswe registered 53.20 in the women’s 400m while Leaname Maotoanong and Boitumelo Masilo recorded 46.69 and 46.74 respectively. Matlhaku continued her dominance by clocking 24.01 in the 200m women’s heat final. Ends