18 Mar 2014

Botswana national Judo team, today, March 18, left for the African Cadet and Junior Championships in Tunisia.

The tournament, which is expected to attract all the 54 African countries, will begin on March 20 until Saturday. According to the team coach, Kingsley Sekotolo, they had selected a team of 10 athletes consisting of four girls and six boys.

He said out of the 10 athletes, eight of them would compete in the cadet category for athletes aged between 16 and 18. He said the other two were juniors aged above 18 years. “We have prepared for the championships since last year and have even brought a Japanese coach on board for help,” he said.

Botswana hosted the tournament in 2012 at Gaborone International Convention Centre (GICC) and the team managed to win three bronze medals. Sekotolo highlighted that this time around they would be aiming for one gold medal.

He said they had made arrangements with schools to release children for the three-day tournament, adding that they would make sure that the school children catched up with their studies upon return on Sunday.

Sekotolo said after the tournament they will start preparing for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland later this year. He said eight of the players in the cadet category will take part in the African Youth games in Gaborone this May. ENDS