14 Feb 2023

The inaugural women sports awards will be held at Lekidi in Gaborone next month.

Inside BW Women Sports chief executive officer, Kesego Okie, said in an interview that her organisation had partnered with Women and Sport Botswana (WASBO), Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) and Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) to stage the event.

Okie said the awards were meant to celebrate excellence as well as honour women in sports.

She said they came up with the concept after realising that women continued to excel in sport, but recognition was not as significant.

Okie said they would consider performances from January 2021 to December 2022.

“We felt maybe giving them two years period would be fair, given that there were not a lot of activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said.

Okie said the awards would be held every year rather than the two years they started with.

 She was happy that Botswana Football Association (BFA) had come on board as a partner, who provided a venue.

She said the event would be on the pitch, where most games were played, giving it the ambiance that it deserved.

Okie said they had partners who she said were passionate about sport, gender parity, growth, development and recognising excellence.

She said they would celebrate all who contributed to the growth of women sport, including men, journalists and the corporate world.

“We have a category called HEforSHE Champion. The category celebrates men, who are equally passionate about the development and growth of women sport in Botswana,” she said.

Okie said they would also recognise an organisation that demonstrated full commitment to the growth of women sports.

Other categories are team of the year, coach of the year, young promising female athlete, umpire of the year and administrator of the year.

In the media category, there is sports journalist of the year, print, radio and television as well as photographer of the year, she added. Ends