13 Oct 2022

Members of the senior women national football team, The Mares, have received over P1.8 million to share among themselves.

The money is part of the prize that the team received at the Women Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.

Speaking at an event to reward the team in Gaborone yesterday, Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) chairperson, Marumo Morule, said time was now for custodians of the team to ponder on the future. He said it was important to have succession plan, adding a distinction between leadership and management must be drawn if sport was to prosper.

He said the right people should be given mandate to lead sport.

Sport leaders, Morule said, should commit to developing athletes for the world stage.

The BNSC chairperson said it was important for administrators to also ask themselves how best they could leverage government support.

“We must also empower our athletes through sport science.  Are these athletes mentally and physically ready to compete. These are the things that we must make sure we empower our athletes with,” Morule said.

For his part, Botswana Football Association (BFA) president, Maclean Letshwiti, said sport science was an important aspect of sport.  “We learnt a lot while at the WAFCON in Morocco and one must admit that this was a great lesson to us.  We saw and understood the importance of sports science. Its benefits are endless,” he said.

He said going forward, it was important that stakeholders such as University of Botswana were lured into the mainstream sport to facilitate a platform of expertise around sports science regarding mental strength, psychological, physical, nutrition, education and research.

Letshwiti thanked the government for support, adding  the financial injection into the national teams reinvigorated teams’ competitiveness. ENDS