27 Sep 2018

Team Botswana, which leaves on Wednesday for the 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Buenos Aires, will be without 400 metres athlete, Bernard Olesitse.

Olesitse’s absence means that the country will be without a track representative for the first time at the Youth Olympic Games.

He is caught between a rock and a hard place given that he has to sit for his final Junior Certificate Examinations, which will be running concurrently with the Games schedule.

Some athletics pundits are of the view that arrangements can be made for the talented athlete to write his examinations in Buenos Aires so that both his academics and track lives do not suffer.

However, acting permanent secretary in the Ministry of Basic Education Simon Coles said his ministry’s position was clear that the athlete was not going to Buenos Aires as the Youth Games clashed with his final examinations.

Asked if there was no special arrangements that could be made to give the athlete an opportunity to compete at the Olympics, Coles said the Botswana Examinations Council had its own rules.

“To conduct an examination in a foreign country is not that simple because there is the security of the papers. Where will he write the examinations,” he asked?

Furthermore, Coles said they were of the view that pupils were free to juggle sports and academics. “But what should come first,” he asked. He said people should be cognizant of the fact that if the athlete did not seat for his examinations, he would not proceed to Form Four.

“So you think he should go and do his sport and fail his exam, what I can tell you is that special arrangements can only be made if he had written 50 per cent of his papers. We still maintain that the boy should write his examinations. As parents we have to protect our children,” he said.

Coles said it was unfortunate that the competition came at the same time that their athlete had to write his examinations.

Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) chief executive officer Tuelo Serufho said he believed that athletes should be given the opportunity to juggle academics and sport.

“When that happens they should be supported both ways to ensure that none of the two areas suffered,” he said Serufho said they had a meeting with Olesitse’s school representative as well as making arrangements to work with him during the vacations and prepare revision papers for him to take to Argentina in the event he had been allowed to travel.

He said they believed that with that support the athlete would have an opportunity of doing well in both sport and academics.

Furthermore, he said the replacement for Olesitse was not guaranteed given that the IOC and IAAF had the principle of universality, which says each country should be represented by one athlete. “What happened in Algiers during the Youth Olympic Games is that we had five athletes that had qualified for the Olympics, however, because there were many African countries that failed to qualify in Algiers, the IAAF and IOC took some of our slots and re-allocated them to other countries,” he said. Former Botswana Athletics Association secretary

Patrick Moesi said there was need to create a balance between academics and sports, a harmonious relationship that would ensure that young athletes explored their talents as well.

The YOG, he said, were age based and an athlete usually had one chance to take part.

“It will be unfortunate if Olesitse was to miss this once in a lifetime opportunity, more so that he will lose out on opportunities to be scouted as well as network with his peers,” he said
Moesi said it might affect his long-term association with sport.He urged all stakeholders to place the interest of the pupil at the centre of their decisions.

“Everything should be done to assist the pupil to take part as well as support him academically, including making special arrangements for him. He is an assert to the country and this noble gesture will go a long way in inspiring confidence in future generations of pupil-athletes,” he said. Ends