30 Aug 2023

Alongside the Olympic Games, the World Athletics Championships represents the pinnacle of senior outdoor track and field events in the world. 

Held biennially, the World Athletics Championships bring together approximately 2 000 athletes from over 200 nations over a nine-day period. 

The last edition of this well-sought after event was in Budapest, Hungary following on the heels of Eugene 2021, United States of America in 2022 while the next edition will be Tokyo 2025. 

Interestingly enough, no African country has ever hosted this world spectacle. 

The question that then boggles the mind is, can an African country, especially Botswana, be equal to the task in terms of hosting this behemoth of an event? 

Regarding the logistics and experience to host an event at this level, the Botswana National Sport Commission chief executive officer, Tuelo Serufho, said enough experience had been amassed to pull off the event successfully. 

“The experience we have gained from the 2011 African Junior Athletics Championships, the 2014 African Youth Games, the 2018 AUSC Region 5 Games and most recently, the 2023 FNB Botswana Golden Grand Prix, amongst others, puts us in a great position to pull off a successful event,” he said. 

Furthermore, he said in terms of the numbers involved, Botswana had previously handled that during the 2014 African Youth Games and that one of the beauties of the World Athletics Championships was that only one training venue and one competition venue were required .

Hosting the World Athletics Championships will not only go a long way in profiling Botswana, but will also attract tourists from all over the world; some of whom would be first time visitors who may fall in love with the country and become return visitors.

Meanwhile, the Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) president who just returned from Hungary, Moses Bantsi, said the country could host the championships. 

He said some of the requirements were that for the country to host, it must be an athletics nation and had a stadium that was certified by the world athletics body to host such a competition. 

Bantsi said the other advantage for Botswana would be the fact that it had the best tourism in the world, which could attract spectators to come in large numbers. 

Furthermore, he said Botswana had also hosted a very successful Botswana Golden Grand Prix recently, adding that with the World Athletics Championship they could up their standard. 

“The only thing that can give us a little problem is accommodation and transportation because we will have more people coming to the country,” he said. 

“But generally we can host, and boost our economy. One stadium with a warm up track is enough to host,” he said. ENDs