03 Mar 2020

The North West region has been crowned champions after clinching three gold and one silver medal in the just ended constituency sport tournament finals staged in Molepolole over the weekend.

The region, known for producing the country’s best in athletics, has done it again showcasing their talent even in ball sports.

The region won gold in football, netball and in women’s volleyball and silver in men’s volleyball.

The champs were crowned at a closing ceremony held at Lemepe Lodge on Sunday.

In football, the “Smilling boys” from the wildlife rich region came from behind in the second half to beat the ‘City boys,’ Mamatomo 2-1. 

The boys from Gaborone had a 1-0 lead in the first before they blew it away in the second half.  ‘Mazothi’ from Ramotswa came third.

The winning streak for the North West region continued in netball with Maun East’s ‘Delta Queens’ clinching the trophy followed by ‘Megale Queens’ from Kweneng region while ‘Ghetto Ferns’ from Francistown took position three.

‘Ekondomboro’ ladies volleyball team from Shakawe, still in the North West region, claimed position one followed by ‘Real Shooters’ from Kweneng region with ‘Mikasa Queens’ from Gaborone region taking third position.

In the men’s volleyball finals, ‘Extreme 6’ volleyball team from Serowe fought gallantly to thrash ‘Enkon’ from Maun 3-2 in a tightly contested game. It is the fourth time in a row that the team won gold. 

‘Team Choice’ from Gaborone region three came third.

The champions from all the three sporting codes walked away with P9 900. Second position and third pocketed P7 700 and P4 000 respectively.

Giving a word of motivation to the champions at the closing ceremony, former FIFA development officer, Ashford Mamelodi urged all sport bodies to unite and work as a team, saying it was high time the gap between constituency sports and sports federations was bridged.

“Let us all belong to one family where all of us can contribute to the agenda of sports,” he said. Mamelodi further outlined several challenges hindering the progress of sports.

Chief among them, he said, was poor leadership across all sports bodies.  He said the reason why some sport codes did not have leagues was because of poor leadership.

Lack of good governance was also cited as one of the challenges hindering sport development in the entire continent of Africa.

He said lack of planning was also another challenge that needed to be addressed as it was equally important.

On other issues, he commended government for initiating constituency sports tournaments, saying the tournaments have reached places in the country where none of the main leagues have reached.

In his keynote address, Kweneng District Council chairperson, Motlhophi Leo said he was concerned that Botswana Netball Association and Botswana Volleyball Federation were not holding leagues, and that as a result, their players ended up playing in the constituency tournament.

He said the tournament, as envisioned by government when it started in 2008, was not only a social programme, but was also meant to act as a transitional phase to assist out of school youth to realise their potential and join mainstream leagues to earn a living.

Although the tournament has proved to be effective, the council chairperson reiterated that some of the set goals had been achieved though a lot still needed to be done.

He said it was also notable that the three annual cycles of the tournament kept participants meaningfully engaged.

He stated that the tournament acted as both a development programme in skills and leadership as well as learning life challenges and as a source of livelihood for many.

The constituency sports tournament has registered some successes since its inception. 

It was reported that some participants have realised their talent and ended up playing in the mainstream leagues. 

Some players, particularly in football, have successfully moved from constituency leagues to established leagues and have had the opportunity to represent the country.

 Among those are Segolame Boy, Goitseone Phoko, Omaatla Kebatho and Thato Ogopotse. Similar successes have also been realised in volleyball and netball. ENDs