13 Jun 2019

In an effort to give more athletes opportunity to qualify for major events, Botswana Athletics Association (BAA), will on June 16, hold a track and field event dubbed Holy Sunday at the National Stadium.

Christine Botlogetswe, Galefele Moroko, Baboloki Thebe and Nijel Amos are the only athletes who have  qualified for the 17^th edition of the IAAF World Championships to be held in Doha from September 27 to October 06.

It is against this background that BAA opted to stage the Holy Sunday meet.

Athletes from South Africa, Lesotho and Zimbabwe have been invited for the meet so as to give local athletes competition on track.

The track events will feature the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m and 5000m categories while the field events will have high and long jumps only.

BAA vice president, Kenneth Kikwe said they found it fit  to organise the event to give athletes the opportunity to try their luck in qualifying for major events.

He said they would use the meet as All Africa Games, Southern Region Senior Championships, World Championship and Olympic Games qualifier.

“We have also invited South Africa and Zimbabwe to bring their relay teams so that we can try our luck to qualify for the World Championships,” he said.

According to Kikwe, Zimbabwe had already confirmed that they would bring both their 4x400m and 4x100m relay teams.

So far, he said South Africa had confirmed that their 4x100m relay team would be available. 

He said he was hopeful that the meet would produce qualifying times given that more athletes were hungry to hit good times.

He said some of the athletes that would take part in the meet include Lee Eppie, Ditiro Nzamani, Keene Motukisi, Phodiso Rampa and Goarata Gabankitse.

“In fact, we are expecting all athletes to come and compete in the Holy Sunday meet because they want to qualify or improve their times.

We will only miss those who are in Europe,” he said.

Meanwhile, coach Thapelo Malwetse said he was skeptical that the Holy Sunday meet would produce good times, saying the weather was not conducive, given that it was very cold, which had affected training programme of many local athletes. 

He therefore said chances were that most, if not all, the sprints might not pull out good times.

“I believe it’s the same reason why Baboloki Thebe’s performance is inconsistent. If he gets to a warmer area, he performs better.

Athletes need some time to adjust and adapt to the conditions,” he said.

The event is expected to start at 9am. ENDS