BAA hungry for more ahead of World Champs d-day
Billed for Hungary, Budapest from 19 – 27 August, the 2023 World Athletics Championships are fast approaching.
Less than four weeks to go until the starter fires his gun to begin the first race, the Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) is racing against time to qualify more athletes for the sporting spectacle.
With deadline day for qualification set for the 30 July, at the moment only four local athletes and the men’s ever-reliable 4x400m relay team will represent the nation in the Hungarian capital.
Flying the blue, black and white for BW will be sprint sensation, Letsile Tebogo, 20, who will line-up for the 100m and 200m (Schoolboy also qualified for the 400m after smashing his Personal Best in Italy over the weekend but is expected to sit the race out).
Completing the exciting, explosive local line-up are 400m trio: Bayapo Ndori, Busang Kebinatshipi, Leungo Scotch.
In a desperate attempt to qualify the 400m relay teams for both the women’s and mixed events, BAA have hastily organised a Track and Field Event in Gaborone this Thursday (20 July) – the cut-off point for relay teams to qualify.
Currently sitting 18th and 17th in the latest World Athletics rankings, the two teams must make it into the top 16 to qualify for the World Champs.
Speaking to Voice Sport, BAA Vice President-Administration, Oabona Theetso admitted the association were concerned about the low numbers.
“We are very worried, we wish we could have qualified many athletes so far but we have not lost hope yet. Athletics is growing every day and we need to also up our game. If we want to qualify in large numbers, let’s all pull together, that is athletes, officials, board and sports bodies pulling together,” challenged Theetso, whose association initially set a qualification target of six individual athletes and two relay squads.
Athletes who still have a realistic chance of securing their place in Budapest are 800m runner, Tshepiso Maseela – who needs to find a time of 1:44.70 and Zibane Ngozi in the 400m, who needs to clock a competitive sub 45 seconds.
The VP-Administration further told Voice Sport that low finances meant they had to cancel training camps scheduled locally and for Europe.
“Plans were there unfortunately we don’t have the financial capacity,” said Theetso, who revealed Botswana National Sports Commission (BNSC) committed P750, 000 for the World Championships, the same amount BAA receive for their annual grant.
Originally, BAA’s budget for the championships was P3 million.
The association is also faced with the bleak prospect of having no female representation at the World Championships for the second edition running.
“We are in this situation because no one cares about ladies. They only care about them when they want cheap mileage. This is a scenario, when we sent mixed relay and women’s relay to Kenya, BSNC told us to send just mixed relay, three women and three men. We sent four women and two men so that we can have women’s relay and mixed. Both competed and women’s entered the top 16 but BNSC didn’t take this kindly,” lamented Theetso.
Hitting back with venom, BNSC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) insisted this was complete nonsense.
“The BAA has failed to submit a plan of their preparatory competitions which we can’t attach a budget to and this constrains the commission. There is no truth to the statement that we declined to fund the women’s team, BAA made a request to send a relay team to Kenya and the request was approved without any conditions to it,” maintained Serufho, adding the commission have been ultra supportive of the BAA’s preparations by offering their facilities for free for all competitions this year.
Meanwhile, the qualified quartet are hard at work in Europe fine-tuning their build-up. 24-year-old Ndori laid down an impressive Diamond League marker in Silesia, Poland at the weekend, equaling his Personnel Best with a time of 44.61 to finish second.
The formidable four are looking to follow in the great Amantle Montsho’s footsteps. The Maun native remains the only Motswana to stand atop the podium at the World Championships, following up her gold in Dague, South Korea in 2011 with silver in the Russian capital of Moscow two years later.
