13 Aug 2020

One of Botswana’s celebrated athletes, Nijel Amos will not take part in all Diamond League races this season.

One of the races, he will miss is the Wanda Diamond League in Monaco Friday (August 14).

Amos, based in the United States of America, said in an interview that his technical team at Oregon Track Club, took a deliberate decision not to allow him to participate in any Diamond League race so as to give him chance to focus on preparing for Tokyo Olympic Games scheduled for 2021.

Amos said in an interview that Monaco track was his favourite in the world, given that during his four-year career, he had been clocking the fastest time there.

“I ran the fastest time last year there.

Remember, I clocked 1:41.89, which is the fastest time in the world ever since the 2012 Olympics, so I was really looking forward to being there, but somethings are beyond our control,” he said.

Track and field analyst, Aobakwe Showa said for Amos to cut his season short was a good idea so that his body could get recovered, regenerated and focused on the Olympic gold.

“It will be a matter of periodisation of few segments such as speed, endurance psychological and mental training, which were the most important elements for a major championship competition,” Showa said.

“I think we are a little bit disappointed that he won’t take part in any of the Diamond League races,” he added.

However, Showa said there was no doubt that Amos looked forward to Monaco race.

“We all wanted to see how he will perform at his favourite track.

As we may recall, he has always produced fast times there as evidenced by the 1.41:89 time he clocked last year,” he said.

Furthermore, he said the athlete had recently been doing some minor races in the USA, mostly running 600m races.

Nonetheless, Showa said he had observed that Amos looked focused and had set his mind on the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Unlike some of locally based athletes, he said Amos had not experienced many interruptions to his training due to lockdown.

“He is a man who had been at work.

I believe he has plenty of time on his micro and macrocyle training phases in order to develop skills and precisely bio motor abilities,” he said. ENDS