10 Jan 2019

Botswana’s top karaketa, Ofentse Bakwadi’s dream of becoming the first Motswana to represent the country in karate at the Olympic Games, might come true as efforts are being made to ensure that it is realised. 

Last year, Bakwadi made his intentions known that he wanted to feature at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. 

However, lack of funds was a stumbling block and he started a fund raising campaign dubbed #Road2Tokyo2020 to finance his qualification campaign. 

Now, Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) and Botswana Karate Association (BOKA) have come on board to assist him. 

As part of his qualification campaign, Bakwadi will compete at the inaugural World Beach Games in San Diego, USA in October courtesy of BNOC. He will be joined by another karateka, Entle Maungwa. 

BOKA president, Tshepo Bathai said in an interview that BNOC would take care of all the expenses adding that they still had to come with a plan to ensure that the two karatekas participate in other Olympic qualification tournaments. 

Meanwhile, BNOC chief executive officer, Tuelo serufho said they were disappointed last year that Bakwadi and other Batswana karatekas were not awarded Tokyo 2020 scholarships by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). 

However, he said Bakwadi and Maungwa got a lifeline after the realisation that Botswana was among the 44 of the 206 National Olympic Committee that had athletes who had qualified for the World Beach Games. 

Also, he said the two karatekas could get slots to feature at the inaugural Africa Beach Games, which would take place in Sal, Cape Verde. 

He pointed out that the new developments presented Bakwadi and Maungwa with the opportunity to improve their world rankings and possibly get Olympic Games qualifications. 

Meanwhile, Karate will feature for the first time at the Olympic Games to be held in Tokyo, Japan in 2020. Ends