07 Jan 2019

Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) has received IAAF Olympic Athletics Dividend (AOD) amounting to US$20 000 (over P200 000).

BAA will also receive US$5 000 (over P53 000) after submitting a comprehensive stating how the first money was spent.

Thus, the association will receive US$25 000 (over P260 000) every year for the next three years to be used for  the development of athletics in the country. 

IAAF president Sebastian Coe Lord Coe, who was in Botswana in 2018, had advised BAA to apply for the AOD programme as it could assist the association in athlete support, coaching, education and anti-doping programmes. 

AOD, according to IAAF website, is a grant that is shared between all IAAF member federations for use in development projects such as facility maintenance, competition staging and athlete preparation.

BAA vice president, Kenneth Kikwe confirmed in an interview that IAAF had approved their application.

He said they had applied for the dividend to deal with development both administratively and technically.

Kikwe said on the administrative part, their desire was to resuscitate their clubs. 

“We don’t want ghost clubs, but we want  active clubs, which meet certain standards as per our constitution,” he said.

Technically, he said they wanted to help athletes, who would qualify for major events such as World Championships and Olympics.

He said they would assist athletes with resources that would enable them to meet qualifying standards. 

Kikwe said both coaches and technical officials would benefit from the dividend, given that they had shortage of coaches at club level.

He said the association had been using unqualified personnel in some of their activities. 

“We want to train them, so that they qualify and meet IAAF standards. Technical officials, coaches and athletes are very important; hence we found it prudent to address the area,” he said.

When announcing the AOD in 2015, Coe was quoted as saying the fund would be financed on a total of about $22 million (over P233 million) over a four-year period, which represents half of the dividend received by the IAAF from the IOC.  Ends