26 Jul 2021

Fans will be glued to their screens when the first Botswana female weightlifter, Magdeline Moyengwa, competes at  the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games today (July 27).

Moyengwa, who would compete in the 59kg category, is expected to put Botswana on the map, despite challenges she encountered during her preparations.

She had to isolate due to COVID-19, missed some training time and joined the rest of the team late.

However, coach Alex Rankgwe said preparations had been going well until the COVID-19 setback two weeks ago, forcing them to join the team in Japan late.

He said the the athlete had also not acclimatised well due to the humid and hot weather.

Rankgwe said the time difference was also not helping, given that they slept late and struggled to wake up in the morning for training.

“With all the challenges, we are trying not to give up. Magdeline has promised me that she would salvage a personal best. That alone shows that she has a lot of determination,” he said.

Furthermore, Rankgwe said they were placed in a tough group with lot of experienced athletes.

The group includes Australian Erika Yamasaki, Canadian Tali Darsigny, Italian Maria Grazia Alemanno and Sabine Kusterer from Germany.

“Magdeline is the only junior in the group and everyone is experienced and tough but we will fight,” he said.

However, he said there was hope, given that in the few days they had been in Japan, they managed to pick up the pieces, stressing that they intended to compete.

Sunday Standard sports editor, Botlhale Koothopile, said for Moyengwa, being at the Olympics on its own was a big achievement.

At 20 years of age, he said, she was still young and had room to learn, thereby having a promising future.

Koothopile said Moyengwa would be going against athletes who were not only her seniors, but were more experienced, therefore she would have to improve drastically if she wanted to make it ti the podium.

He, however said, she had been steadily improving over the years, but unfortunately, the suspension of sporting activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, halted her progress, resulting in her performance dropping a bit.

Koothopile said one can hope that while challenges prevented her from training outside Botswana, there was an opportunity for her to further perfect technique and skill, more especially the snatch.

Weightlifting, he said, was a technical sport and a slight mistake could make one’s whole set chaotic, adding that if she had managed to perfect her technique, she could lift bigger weights and also help her with her clean and jack. ENDS