27 Jul 2022

Team Botswana is ready for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games that start Thursday July 28.

The team arrived in Birmingham from Cardiff on Tuesday joined by some of the athletes who took part in the recent World Championships.   

Chef de mission, Yarona Sharp, said in an interview that the team was well prepared and ready to compete.

A total of 34 athletes will represent Botswana in athletics, boxing, cycling, judo, lawn bowls, squash, swimming and weightlifting. Sharp said as part of their preparations, the squash team competed at the Under 19 British Open in Nottingham.

She said before the British Open, they had also competed at the Dutch Open, adding lawn balls had made connections with Cardiff club, where they were training together.

Sharp further said while in Cardiff, judo also made a connection with a national team that also camped there.

In other issues, she emphasised said the team was in good spirit, shape and happy that they were injury free.

In their strategy, the Botswana National Olympic Committee had set a target of eight medals for the Commonwealth Games.

In that regard, Sharp said ‘if our team is healthy, we have high hopes that we will bring results,” she said.  Meanwhile, in the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Botswana won five medals, which was the largest number since the country’s participation in the games.

Swimming, lawn bowls, and squash will start their competition on Friday while weightlifting will take centre stage on Saturday.

Judo, athletics, boxing and cycling are expected to start on August 2, but BNOC said the schedule was subject to change.  ENDS