23 Jun 2022

The name Tlhalosang Tshireletso will be engraved in Botswana’s history books for a long time. He has revitalised field events to make them attractive and fashionable.

Until recently, field events were a ‘by the way’ phenomenon with Botswana only well known for excellence in track events, particularly 400 metres.

Compounding the situation was when the country’s hope of salvaging a medal at international competitions got diminished after Kabelo Mmono, Gable Garenamotse and Kabelo Kgosiemang hanged their spikes.

However, the emergence of Tshireletso has once again rekindled Botswana’s hope.

The athlete is slowly, but surely becoming a force to reckon with. He won two medals at the just ended 22nd Africa Senior Championships in Mauritius. By this, he rewrote history books to become the first Motswana athlete to bring two field event medals from a single competition, gold in long jump and silver in triple jump.

Tshireletso, who is a University of Botswana lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering, said in an interview that notwithstanding his feat at the championships or any other competition, training for him was a nightmare given that he did not have a coach in Botswana.

He said he was coached by London-based Guy Spencer, who sent him training programmes.

On one hand, his fellow athletes, 100 metres runner, Tsaone Sebele and long jumper Neo Theetso, would watch him train and then give him some tips after which he would send his coach a video for evaluation.

“It is easier to change something during a training session, than to wait for a response that would only come in the next session. Otherwise in the next session you would have sometimes forgotten where to change, unlike when you have a coach next to you who would act immediately so that it sticks in your mind,” he said.

The athlete who has just completed his PhD at the University of Cape Town said his goal was that, despite training without a coach, he had to improve his technique.

The athlete said he started preparing for the season last year in winter.

However, Tshireletso said field events took longer to perfect especially jumps and throws in that they were too technical.

“It took me close to 10 years to develop proper technique. So, as a country, we must take field events seriously, starting from the grassroots at the same time introducing proper technique. If children are taught proper technique as early as possible it will bear fruit,” he said.

The Africa long jump champion said after realising the development gap, he assembled a team of children to coach.

Meanwhile, Tshireletso said he was also mentoring Sebele and Theetso, who joined him last year. ENDS