03 May 2021

Three Botswana relay teams failed to qualify for the Olympics at the World Athletics Relays Silesia 2021 in Poland on May 1-2.

The women’s 4x400 finished on third position with a time of 3:34.99, the men’s 4x100 took position four with 39.55, while the 4x400 metres mixed relay finished last with a time 3:20.97.

According to World Athletics, the first eight teams in the 4x100m, 4x400m and mixed 4x400m automatically qualified for the Tokyo Olympics.

If the country already qualified through the World Athletics Championships Doha 2019, the remaining places would be allocated according to the World Athletics top performance lists of June 29, 2021.

The first 10 teams in the 4x100m and 4x400m and first 12 teams in the mixed 4x400m automatically qualified for the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.

Aanalyst, Aobakwe Showa, said 4x100m returned a good time despite their failure to qualify for the finals.

“One must bear in mind that the teams were on camp for just two weeks or so as compared to their other counterparts,” he said.

Showa said Thapelo Monaiwa had an explosive start and covered a lot of ground on the Belarus athlete to hand over to Letsile Tebogo on the back straight who also did well.

He said Tebogo handed the baton to Karabo Mothibi.

Showa said Mothibi lost a lot of ground to French, South African and Italian athletes who ran him down on the last bend to relegate him to fourth.

He said handing the baton on that position was to be an impossible task anchoring against South Africa’s Akani Simbine and Italian sprinter Filippo Tortu who were both sub 10 athletes.

Looking at the set-up, he said fast athletes were usually on the back straight and homestretch, but the decision to put Letsile and Mothibi on second leg and third leg respectively was perhaps to put Thuto Masasa on respective position to hold off down the homestretch.

“I have always maintained that the 4x100m is always won on baton exchange and I believe the athletes were not that bad and have to admit we lost a couple of hundredth of seconds especially on the last bend between Masasa and Mothibi,” he said.

Talking about mixed relays, Showa said the results were quite disappointing, adding that Zibani Ngozi did ran a good start to hand the baton on second position.

He said Oarabile Mokenane struggled to keep up with the rest of the field and she handed the baton last, making it mission impossible for last two athletes as the gap was quite huge.

She observed that Christine Botlogetswe, who was running the third leg was not fully fit.

“One could have wished Oratile Nowe could be given a nod ahead of Mokenane looking at the results of the last Botswana Athletics Association meet prior to these competitions, and Nowe’s power and 800m endurance could have saved us,” he said.

In the 4x400 women’s relay, another analyst, Lentswe Charles, said their speed was not yet in a normal state as it seemed they had less an aerobic training required for the quarter miler’s event.

He said there was a need to have at least two runners in Sub 52 mark 400 metres Season’s Best times for the event to balance the other legs.

“Well they tried their best even though the baton exchange between Galefele Moroko and Amantle Montsho was not satisfying,” he said.

Charles said Tlhompang Basele, who was running the first leg could not cope with a great pace from opponents, but she was sprinting in her normal speed while Leungo Matlhaku could have been featured either on the third or on the anchor leg. ENDS