27 Jul 2021

Team Botswana Chef De Mission, Tshepo Sitale, is pleased with weightlifter Magdeline Moyengwa’s performance despite having missed an Olympic medal opportunity.

Moyengwa’s maiden appearance at the Olympics was cut short today(July 27) after failing three 80 kilogrammes clean and jerk at the Tokyo International Forum.

She was competing in the 59kg category where she managed to snatch 70kg, which was also her personal best.

In her first attempt, she lifted 65kg, but failed to lift 70kg in the second attempt. She managed to lift 70kg in the third attempt.

In the clean and jerk, the weightlifter tried to move from 70kg to 80kg, but failed in all three attempts.

However, Sitale said considering that it was her first major games, her participation was a good experience to build on while working towards Commonwealth Games next year and ultimately Paris 2024 Olympics.

He said in Africa level, the weightlifter had proved over time that she was a hard nut to crack.

He shared that what gave her more hope was that the athlete had a positive attitude, which would enable her to win a medal for the country in future.

Sunday Standard sports editor, Botlhale Koothopile, said Moyengwa’s performance was not surprising given that the young athlete was still in her formative years in the sport.

 “If you look at her results, they reflect no improvement since 2019. This can to a large extent be due to the effect of suspension of sport ahead of the Olympics,” he said.

Koothopile said during Africa Games in 2019, she did 70kg in snatch, adding this was the same performance in the Olympics this year.

He said in clean and jack, her best lift was 85kg, which she also did at Africa Games in 2019 but this time around she failed to lift 80kg.

Koothopile said since weightlifting was a technical sport, an athlete needed to be sharp to compete and this could only be achieved through training and competing against the best, both of which she could not get due to suspension of activities. ENDS