19 Aug 2018

Three Batswana athletes who put a sterling performance at the 21^st Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) African Senior Championships in Asaba recently will represent Africa at the 2018 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Continental Cup next month.

Baboloki Thebe, Nijel Amos and Christine Botlogetswe, who made it to the 4x400m mixed relay team, will also represent Africa in individual events by virtue of being crowned champions and runners up respectively in Asaba.

The 4x400m mixed relay is made up of South Africans Thapelo Phora, Caster Semenya and Glory Nathaniel of Nigeria while Yinka Ajayi, and Chidi Okezie also from Nigeria are part of the mixed relay as reserves.

Expectations are that those who won  the 4x400m men in 2014 would continue to prove to the World that 400m belongs to Africans.

In all, 77 athletes will represent Africa in different events, with 20 from South Africa, Nigeria has 16, Kenya has nine, and Morocco has six, Ethiopia and Egypt have four athletes respectively.

Three athletes were picked from Botswana and Cote d’Ivoire, two from Algeria ,Burkina Faso, and Tunisia while Burundi, Cameroon, Djibouti, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Swaziland, and Uganda have one athlete each.

Commenting about Team Africa, Kenya sport reporter Muigai Kiguru, said the Continental Cup set for Ostrava, Czech Republic next month, provided Africa with a chance to better their third place from 2014 in Marrakech, Morocco.

“Going by the competition witnessed during the Africa Athletics Championships which acted as the ‘qualifier’ for the global showpiece, I believe Africa has a team strong enough to chalk up maximum medals against the world’s best,” he said.

According to Kiguru, the African team is a blend of youth and experience with powerhouses South Africa and Nigeria sending some of their best young talents while Kenya and Ethiopia has some of the most experienced in the world.

However, he said the African team preparations had been dented by questions on the composition of the men’s 4x400m.

He said even though Kenya won the 4x400m continental championships ahead of Nigeria and South Africa, CAA had decided to pick up a quartet of Botswana speedsters, who registered a Did Not Finish (DNF).

“It is an issue that Athletics Kenya president Jackson Tuwei have picked with CAA president Kalkaba Malboum, who promised to revert with an answer,” he said.

He however said Botswana were also a strong team and if CAA decide to stick with their pick, then Africa still have their chance of medaling. 

He said the competition in Ostrava would be intense going by the fact that other continents have managed to convince their best athletes to take part.

“I think it will only make sense for individual athletes to do their best for the continent, obviously aiming to take the top spot, where finishing second will be an effort enough,” he said. ENDS