23 Mar 2022

Lack of club activities in the north are to blame for poor competition at the athletics qualification event in Francistown on Monday and Tuesday.

The Tertiary Student Sports Association (BOTESSA) and Botswana Brigades Sports Association (BOBSA) competition was held in conjunction with FNBB Botswana.

Speaking in an interview, BOTESSA vice president technical, Tebogo Kgari said quality was low in the north in comparison to the south because the former had less club activities.

He said athletes in the south were boosted by competitions at club level.

Therefore, he advised that northern athletes could be attached to southern clubs for benchmarking.

Kgari also lamented that a break in sports activities due to COVID-19 also contributed to low competition.

He added that athletes were aware that the competition was a qualifier one for international events such as National Championships, FISU World University games and CUCSA games, hence the need to up their standards to meet set standards.
Kgari said said track events had beetr quality than the field events, mainly because coaches had more abilities in track than in field.

He said such was one area they should on improve on, rather than putting more focus on the 400m event as if it was the only race they were competing in.

BOBSA public relations officer, Oabile Kgopa, however expressed delight at performance of athletes who registered good times to qualify for international games.

He said athletes were impressive in races such as 400m, 4x4 relay and 800m.

He applauded FNB sponsorship which aimed at nurturing talent and also helped to improve quality of sports at tertiary level.

Kgopa also commended partnership with BOTESSA stating that it had changed their operation in sport especially at management level and at the sports ground.

Before the partnership, he said they never held a competition of such magnitude as they relied more on government sponsorship.

He said those who met the set standards qualified for the upcoming National Championship billed for April 7-8 in Gaborone. ENDS