09 Jun 2021

 The team of athletes due to represent Botswana at the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympics will be offered the Pfizer inoculation, one of the vaccines with high efficacy, the Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) has confirmed.

Speaking to BOPA in an interview on the sidelines of a media engagement hosted by Botswana National Olympic Commitee (BNOC) in Gaborone on Tuesday, BNOC President, Colonel Botsang Tshenyego said necessary precautions would be taken to protect Team Botswana as they head for Japan.

“We can confirm to the nation that vaccines have been availed for the team and they shall receive the Pfizer jab.

We are left with a month and a half before we the Olympics, the athletes will be inoculated and continue being in camp in a safe environment until close to the starting date,” Col Tshenyego said. Upon arrival in Japan for the games, Col Tshenyego said Team Botswana would be in a bio-secure bubble camp, and continue with their preparations without mingling with too many others from different environments.

“The athletes would only leave camp to partake in their competitions and head straight to their camp, to reduce socialising with too may people, as part of precautions to reduce the probability of them contracting the coronavirus,” he said.

Col Tshenyego said the 12 athletes who had already qualified for the Olympics, had been in a long preparatory camp and they hoped more participants, particularly those in athletics, would qualify for the Olympics before the June 29 qualification cut off date.

Earlier on, welcoming the media to the engagement, Col Tshenyego said over the past year where competitive sport had been paused owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the BNOC had utilised the period for their transformative plan.

“We successfully conducted our organisational restructuring exercise and a big part of that was undertaken during the new normal of working from home,” Col Tshenyego said.

Initially scheduled for July 24 to August 9 last year, the 2020 Summer Olympics, formally called the ‘Games of the 32nd Olympiad’ but popularly known as ‘Tokyo 2020’ were postponed to July 23 to August 8 this year owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ends