17 Feb 2020

Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) is hopeful that with better training and more preparatory competitions, more athletes will qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and other major competitions.

In an interview with BOPA during the third BAA track and field competitions in Francistown recently, Vice President for administration, Oabona Theetso said only six athletes had qualified for the Olympics since the beginning of this year.

The qualified athletes are: Nijel Amos, Galefele Moroko, Christine Botlogetswe, Tshepiso Masalela, Boitumelo Masilo and a new entrant Anthony Pesela from Maun, qualifying for the World Junior Championship 400m.

In the senior women 400m race, Christine Botlogetswe clocked 52.46, Amantle Nkape, formerly Montsho, clocked 52.67 seconds, while Galefele Moroko clocked 53.48 seconds.

In the senior men, 400m veteran, Isaac Makwala, who was running his second race since his injury last year, clocked 46.41 seconds, while Ditiro Nzamani clocked an impressive 45.98 seconds and Leungo Scotch clocked 46.39 seconds.

The national team coach, Justice Dipeba said there had been an improvement in efforts to hit the qualifying time for the Olympics.

He said such athletes as Botlogetswe had shown improvement in the third meet, compared to other seasons, and that BAA was hopeful that more athletes such as veterans Nkape and Makwala would improve their times to qualify.

“We also have other athletes in the camp preparing for the competitions and they are running better than they ran in the previous meets, so things are getting better,” he said.

Although some may complain of the short preparatory time for the athletes, Coach Dipeba said he was certain that the upcoming competitions, both nationally and internationally, would give athletes the opportunity to get ready and qualify, before the track and field qualification deadline of June 29.

He said they were targeting to send at least 16 athletes to 2020 Tokyo Olympics, by having both the women and male relay teams qualifying.

The association will also try to get the new category, mixed relay team to qualify.

Coach Dipeba said they were still facing a challenge of not having a field event coach on board, as there was only a volunteer coach present at the moment.

He said such a challenge would always hinder the country from qualifying for international competitions, despite having young, capable athletes, who just need guidance to qualify. ENDS