11 Aug 2022

Athletes development and talent nurturing at elite level is a paramount component of success in sport world-wide.

Minister of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture, Tumiso Rakgare has said talent alone would not help athletes win against the best resourced nations such as Jamaica, England and Nigeria.

Speaking at a ceremony to welcome Team Botswana home from Birmingham, he said unlike other countries that had depth to send athletes for varied events, Botswana ended up over-stretching athletes by fielding each in several events, a problem he said needed to be resolve.

He said sport development approach needed to respond to these complexities, adding the bold approach going to the Commonwealth Games was to balance the much-needed results - medals, with exposure for development, which inherently took due preparation and planning.

“It takes these dedicated men and women to give their all, their blood, sweat and tears (most of the time tears of joy as they continue to surpass even their own expectations) to be able to deliver world class performances like the ones witnessed at the just-ended Games,” he said.

He said government would continue to strive to provide the necessary support and ensure that they capacitate sporting codes in order to facilitate development.

“It must, however, be noted that we are challenged in many ways; especially as a result of the many competing priorities amid a limited budget,” he said.

The minister said government would also continue to appeal to the private sector to support sport.

He said such would enable sports to harness the benefits that talented athletes and teams could attract for their organisations or businesses locally and internationally, thus growing the synergies and symbiosis between themselves and sport.

For his part, Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) president Botsang Tshenyego said the Birmingham 2022 Games held under the theme “Sport is Just the Beginning, gave them an opportunity to gauge their national sport programme.

“We come out of the games with much more than what we left with in our sport tool bag at individual, team, organisation and national levels,” he said.

Tshenyego said such were intangible assets that would help them in resetting the course for future endeavours.

The president said Paris 2024 was round the corner, adding that the next commonwealth Games in Victoria, Australia and many milestones in between needed to be well prepared for.

“It is my fervent wish that our next outing, at least to the Commonwealth Games has one or two more team sports,” he said.

Tshenyetso said his highlight at the Commonwealth Games was the sustainability commitment and achievement demonstrated through the Games.

He is happy that almost all the vehicles used were electric, all water bottles used was made from recycled plastic or other material, refill water points were deployed around venues to encourage everyone to use reusable personal bottles.

Tshenyego also said Birmingham 2022 pledged to plant 22 000 trees in a reforestation effort in the Western Midlands, a move that would promote environmental conservation.  ENDS