08 May 2025

All eyes will be at the World Athletics Relays at the Guangdong Olympic Stadium in Guangzhou, China over the weekend, where Botswana athletes will also participate in the competition. 

Botswana has sent four teams that comprise 4x100m men, 4x400m men, 4x400m women and 4x400m mixed relays. 

Team Botswana head coach, Justice Dipeba said in an interview that the morale in camp was high as all athletes looked forward to hit the track and represent the country well.

He said they had prepared well for the competition and went to China on time so that the athletes could have the time to acclimatise.

He said the technical team was happy that the athletes were injury free.

“Everyone is ready; every one wants to be a star. I think that’s the most important thing and we are looking forward to see them performing well on Saturday and Sunday,” he said. 

He further said they had accepted that they would not be with their strongest runners, Letsile Tebogo, Bayapo Ndori and Collen Kebinatshipi who withdrew from the team citing personal reasons.

Nonetheless, he said the objective was to qualify for the World Athletics Championships slated for Tokyo, Japan in September. 

Dipeba said should they reach their milestone they had set with the team; it would show the world that Botswana could step up any day despite any challenge, including injuries.

Meanwhile, according to World Athletics, on the first day of the competition, the top two teams in each of the four heats will advance to the finals on day two, while also securing their qualification for the World Athletics Championships.

During the finals, teams will compete for prize money and obtain preferential World Athletics Championships lane-seeding positions. 

All other teams will compete on day two in the additional round where the top two teams in each of the three heats will also qualify for the World Athletics Championships. The remaining two places in each event will be awarded based on top lists during the qualification period, which ends on August 24. BOPA