28 Mar 2018

Team Botswana has safely arrived at the Gold Coast where they will compete at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

The team’s chef de mission, Tebo Segaise is optimistic that the team will fare well at the games given the fact that their preparations for the competition were so far on the right track.

Botswana, Segaise said, would partake in five sporting codes with athletics fielding 14 athletes while boxing and lawn bowls would field four and seven athletes respectively.

Swimming would have one athlete representing Botswana and weightlifting would be represented by one respectively, she said.

She said the three codes of athletics, boxing and lawn bowls arrived at Gold Coast on March 18 for the pre-games training camp and acclimatisation while Kgotla Kgaswane of weightlifting, Naomi Ruele of swimming, Nijel Amos of athletics will join the team on March 31.

“The training camp was held in a sports center and the team moved to the Games Village on Sunday and is continuing with the momentum from the previous week,” she explained.

During the camp, she said the team had two training sessions per day which were well attended and monitored by both the coaches and the medical team.

Segaise said athletics team took part at the pre-games competition on March 28 in Brisbane as part of the Commonwealth Games preparation.

She said the competition had given the coaches an opportunity to make finishing touches before the games.

With regards to boxing, she said the team was continuing with training and was pleased with its progress, adding that lawn bowls was also training on a daily basis with some of the teams around.

She said Ruele and her coach were continuing with preparations at their base, while Kgaswane was in Egypt as part of the preparations.

Giving an update on injuries, she said in any sport injuries were always bound to happen.

She however said they were currently not experiencing any major setbacks since all athletes were training.

“However, I must hasten to say that our medical team is working round the clock to ensure they attended any emergencies  promptly. Like all of us their interest is seeing a very strong and healthy team competing during the games hence the precautions they  take and recommend rest for some of the athletes,” she said. ENDS