24 Apr 2023

Organisers intend to run a flawless FNBB Golden Grand Prix meet in Gaborone Saturday.

The meet’s technical delegate, Thomas Ndazila, said in an interview that given their level of preparedness, they did not anticipate any mistakes such as the one from last year where Letsile

Tebogo’s World Under 20 time could not be ratified by World Athletics because a zero gun test was not conducted.

“We are prepared. A zero gun test will be done in the morning and afternoon as is required by World Athletics,” he said.

Ndazila said as proof that they had indeed upped their game, they had engaged Timetronics, a renowned sports timing company.

He said Eddy Vanuytven, a Timetronics specialist from Belgium would be in charge alongside Tshepo Kelaotswe, a Botswana photo-finish judge.

Ndazila said owing to the absence of qualified starters in Botswana, they had invited a qualified race starter from Zimbabwe, whom he said would be assisted by Batswana: Kenneth Kikwe, Philander Vilander, Olebogeng Oetebetse and Patrick Marumo.

He said they would have other technical officials from neighbouring countries, with one coming from Zambia, four from Zimbabwe and a further four from eSwatini.

The technical delegate said among the technical officials from eSwatini would be a qualified competition secretary whose responsibilities would include working in the Technical Information Centre (TIC).

“I think this year, as technical officials, we are really prepared. We are going to have our refresher course as technical officials prior to the meet to remind one another of what is expected of us,” he said.

Ndazila, who explained that all the officials who would be on duty on Saturday were qualified, added that they had roped in those who had undergone Level 1 of the technical officiating education certification system course.

He, however, said due to there being only a handful of officials with the Level 1 certification in Botswana, sourcing technical officials from outside the country had become the only other option of making up the required numbers.

Meanwhile, as a World Athletics appointed technical delegate, Ndazila will not only supervise technical officials during the meet, but will also be responsible for all the technical aspects of the races including checking the start lists and ensuring that the sectors were properly measured for field events.ENDS