27 Aug 2020

Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) has taken a decision to put on hold all competitions until further notice.

Already, BAA has cancelled track and field meet, which was scheduled for Gaborone a fortnight ago, due to a two-week lockdown of greater Gaborone region.

In an interview with BOPA on Wednesday, BAA vice president Oabona Theetso said races, which had been cancelled were to be used for preparing athletes for Olympic qualifiers starting on December 1.

“All the races from August 8 until end of November were to be used to prepare athletes for end of year qualifiers,” he said. He indicated that athletes were training without checking their fitness levels because of lack of competitions, which was a drawback.

“When athletes train, they should keep on checking their progress levels and that could only be done by taking part in competitions,” he added.

Theetso said putting their activities on hold had negatively affected preparations for Olympic qualifiers.

However, he said the health of athletes and other stakeholders had to be considered first in view of the drastic increase of COVID-19 positive cases.

“We just hope that in October, the health situation would have improved so that BAA activities could resume,” he said. He said athletes would have to work hard upon resumption of activities and utilise the period until June 29, 2021 for the qualifiers. ENDS