22 Jul 2018

An inspection team assessing Botswana’s readiness to host 8^th edition of the Africa Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 under 20 Youth Games has given the preparations the thumbs up.

Both the Local Organising Committee, Regional Organising Committee, and Chef de Mission from all participating countries met at Oasis recently to get an update on the progress made so far as well as the touring of facilities to be used.

Botswana will host athletes from 10 AUSC Region5 member states, which include Angola, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe on December 7-16.

The games, named Region 5 Youth Games Gaborone 2018, are expected to feature 10 sporting codes which include basketball, boxing, netball, volleyball, athletics, including athletics for the blind, football, judo, gymnastics, swimming and tennis.

AUSC Region 5, chief executive officer, Stanley Mutoya said in an interview that the intention of the meeting and facilities tour was to assess progress and state of readiness for the Games.

He said they were now in the fourth phase of their preparations, where they were assessing if Botswana can host memorable Games.

“We were looking at the Games village, where the athletes will lodge and look at the areas and welfare provisions that are in place,” he said.

Furthermore, Mutoya said they had also looked at the competition facilities adding they were basically showing progress to the member countries as well as confirming to them that Botswana was  ready for the Games.

He said their last meeting would be in October, which also coincides with team sports draw, where they would be fixturing teams that would be playing in December.

Mutoya said he was optimistic that Botswana would deliver the Games looking at the fact that they had “ticked the box” concerning athletes welfare, infrastructure, and technical officials.

Lesotho’s Chef de Mission Modupe Mothepu said he was impressed that the facilities were coming up ‘nicely’.

He said the soccer stadium that was being built in Tlokweng was one of his highlight, adding that they were promised that it would be compete in December.

The soccer field he said was built within the FIFA standards in terms of the pitch, and facilities adding that they were hopeful that come December, Botswana would host memorable games.

Some of the facilities that the Chef de Mission’s toured were, UB indoor facility, National Stadium, UB Stadium, and grounds at BUAN. ENDS