05 Sep 2023

Botswana has an appetite to host the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) Africa Senior Athletics Championships in 2026.

Next year’s edition will be held in Yaoundé, Cameroon, and the 2026 host city is yet to be determined by the CAA board, hence Botswana wants to submit her bid.

The Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) vice president, Oabona Theetso, confirmed that they had shown interest in hosting Africa’s showpiece. “We believe as Botswana we can do well given the fact that in the past we have managed to host different athletics events, which also attracted international athletes,” he said.

Theetso said the country could use that as a baseline to host the 2026 Africa Senior Championships.

Furthermore, he said they were of the view that Botswana was doing well in athletics, adding that even during the just ended World Athletics Championships; Botswana was the only country that managed to finish on the podium in Southern Region. “We felt that we should take advantage of that.

Remember, as a country, we also hosted the FNB Botswana Golden Grand Prix, which also attracted a lot of athletes, “he said. The Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) chief executive officer, Tuelo Serufho said the inaugural FNB Botswana Golden Grand Prix that the country hosted earlier this year clearly demonstrated the extent to which Batswana were passionate about athletics.

“Therefore, we believe we can’t go wrong with an international athletics event with a quality line-up,” he said.

He said while the BAA’s application would still have to follow the normal process, one was pleased to note that if delivered soon, it would meet the BNSC requirement of two years for continental events.

He said on the funding side, it may not be too heavy as they essentially had the required facilities and also believe the private sector would be keen to partner with them on the logistics side, especially if they were to engage them when there was still sufficient time.

He said events of the type the BAA would like to host fit well with Botswana’s MICE concept, adding that a lot of hotel rooms would be taken in the host city for the duration of the event; mobile network operators would benefit from roaming and including vendors from the sale of airtime, transport operators, businesses in food and beverages would also benefit, amongst many others.

“Assuming the BAA goes ahead with the intention and they are successful, this would augur well for us in the future should we want to host events like the World Athletics

Championships, which I believe we have the wherewithal to stage,” he said. ENDS