28 Jul 2020

 Sporting codes have hailed the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for revising Olympic Games qualification system.

The changes were made after consultations with stakeholders.

In an interview on Monday, Botswana Boxing Association’s (BoBA) public relations officer, Taolo Tlouetsile said this was a welcome development, adding that it would encourage more athletes to work hard.

He said specific age criteria would motivate older athletes, considering that they could still qualify.

Tlouetsile also highlighted that even the younger athletes who were excluded due to the age bracket were now in a position to qualify for the games.

 The qualification deadline was moved to June 29, 2021 and all athletes who were eligible by age in 2020 would still be eligible in 2021. Athletes born between December 31, 2002 and January 1, 1980 would be eligible to compete in the games.

Before the 2020 Tokyo Games were suspended due to COVID-19, four Botswana women and one man had already qualified for the games.

Botswana would now have an opportunity to get more athletes into qualifying for the meet.

Tlouetsile argued that even though this was a positive move, BoBA was still going to face challenges in terms of selecting boxers in the absence of competitions, adding that they used boxers performance criteria to select a national team.

 “Even if the coach could be requested to put together a new team, it would prove futile since he would have to consider performance of athletes, which would be taxing as there are no games due to social distancing,” he said.

Presently boxers train without sparing partners to avoid contact with one another.

He pointed out that there was high possibility for national team to go on camp without any competitions due to COVID 19 pandemic, likely to result in the association selecting only former national team members.

He said funds availability could also be a hindrance.

Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) vice president, Oabona Theetso, said a lot of things had changed due to COVID-19, hence the need for revised qualification system.

Pertaining to how they viewed the move, Theetso said it was a blessing in disguise for them since most key athletes had not  yet qualified for Olympics, which was a blow to their medal expectation.

He indicated that this would afford the coach and athletes ample time to go back to the drawing board and plan strategically.

Theetso added that even those who qualified now had time to identify technical issues and rectify them. BOPA