17 Dec 2023

The year 2023 was full of roller coaster emotions for Botswana sport, but the negatives for once were eclipsed by the positive.
Track and field

The year started on a sombre note after the 2012 London silver Olympic medalist Nijel Amos

was banned after testing positive for a prohibited substance, metabolites of GW1516. He missed the Budapest World Championships and he will miss the Paris 2024 Olympics after he was banned for three years.

In May, the country hosted a successful Botswana Golden Grand Prix, which attracted a lot of international athletes amongst them Canadian Andre De Grasse and American sprinter, ShaÇarri Richardson. In the same meet, Letsile Tebogo senT the stadium into A frenzy as he stormed to a 200 metres

Person Best time of 19.87 beating the likes of De Grasse, Aron Brown from Canada and Liberian Joseph Fahnbuller.

In July Tebogo broke Frankie Fredericks’ record 200 metres men record set in 1996, as he stopped the clock in 19.50 seconds. He continued with his good performance at the World Championships held in Budapest, Hungary, as he became the first African to win a medal in 100 metres, and become the first Motswana to ascend to the podium at the World Champs, winning a silver in 100 metres and a bronze in 200 metres.

The nation had expected that the medal tally will increase but unfortunately Bayapo Ndori
was injured in the 400 metres semi-finals.

The Mares
Confusion nearly rocked the women’s football national team, after their coach Gaoletlhoo ‘Ronaldo’ Nkutlwisang, was relegated to second assistant coach. Mohambi Saulos, who was roped in as the head coach, was shown the door after the team’s poor performance in the Olympic qualifiers. Alex Malete has since been appointed interim coach.
The Mares made history by qualifying for the WAFCON 2024 to be held in Morocco next year. This will be the second time the the team will be competing at the WAFCON after they participated for the first time last year. The Mares beat Kenya with an aggregate of 2-1 to qualify.

The Zebras
Botswana Football Association (BFA) parted ways with gaffer Mogomotsi Mpote and hired
French man, Didier Gommes Da Rossa. The is a ray of hope after BFA hired Da Rosa who won the hearts of Batswana in a World Cup qualifier game, when Zebras won 1-0 against the high placed Guinea.

Table tennis
The Botswana Table Tennis Association closed the 2023 calendar by successfully hosting the Phoenix Assurance International Open Championship, which saw Reneilwe Lekorwe again hoisting the country’s flag high finishing second in the Under-11 category.

The BTTA also hosted a successful elective Annual General Meeting (AGM) where the BTTA president Kudzanani Motswagole retained his position unopposed.

Meanwhile, the BTTA renowned umpire Rita Sebele was on the other hand flying high the country’s flag as she was engaged in international officiating engagements.

Sebele was in October 10-14, 2023 invited to officiate at the World Table Tennis (WTT)
Contender tournament in Doha, Qatar. She also officiated the WTT Feeder Series on October 15-19, still in Qatar.

Despite hosting various tournaments as a way of growing the sport, the BTTA has made a remarkable mark in youth development.

Through the Re Ba Bona Ha centres and other youth development initiatives, the BTTA appear to be doing well in developing athletes for the future.

The programme saw young athletes taking part in some regional competitions, with the Sensational 11-year-old Lekorwe making a positive impact in the region.

Despite dominating the junior cadre locally, Lekorwe also made his mark outside the country finishing second at the South Africa Open Championship in October.

The BTTA Under-11 team also scooped three medals at the 2023 International Table Tennis
Federation (ITTF) Southern Africa Hopes and Challenge Week, which concluded on December 1, 2023 in Windhoek.

The quartet of Lekorwe, Tinashe Dzvaka, Tshegofatso Buisanang and Boitlamo Nkele scooped sliver and two bronze medals.

In the boys’ category Lekorwe finished second scoping the silver medal while Dzvaka finished fourth getting bronze. On the girls’ side, Nkele finished overall in third scoping a bronze while Buisanang finished fifth.

Based on the successful hosting of international tournaments and youth development initiatives, ITTF Africa has granted Botswana permission through the BTTA to host the Africa Youth Championships on July 15-21, 2024.

The Africa Youth Championship will be followed by the Commonwealth Youth Championships, which will also be hosted by the country on July 23-28, 2024.

Botswana Volleyball Federation (BVF) The Botswana Volleyball Federation (BVF) has despite lack of sponsorship made efforts to revive the sport with funding from its coffers.

The move saw the sporting code hosting a successful tournament, BVF Cup held between September and October 2023, which was won by BDF VI men while Police VI won the women’s final.

The tournament qualified the top four teams in both men and women for the Zone VI Club Championship ongoing in Lesotho. Another tournament, the Golden Cup Tournament, was held in November 2023 and was won by Police VI women and Kutlwano men teams respectively.

The tournament was also used as a training event by clubs that represent the country at the ongoing Zone VI senior club volleyball championship in Lesotho.

The BVF also engaged more on the development of beach volleyball, with the duo of Jack Boifang and George Chiswaniso from Police VI volleyball club doing exceptional well as they represented the country at club and national team regional engagements.

Recently (November 2023) the duo represented the country at the Zonal Beach Olympic qualifiers in Mozambique where they got third position qualifying for the last round of the qualifiers.

In one of their past engagements, Boifang and Chiswaniso represented the country at the Africa Nations Cup in Morocco in July 2023 as well as the Zone VI beach volleyball tour in Maputo, Mozambique, in March.

Cycling
2023 will go in the books of the Botswana Cycling Association (BCA) as well as the local riders, after the Executive Committee, the president and Secretary General Kagiso Potongwane and Game Mompe attended the UCI congress, a first for the BCA. The congress was held in Glasgow, Scotland, at the same time with the World Championships, which also saw young Matlhogonolo Botlhole participating at the Championships, a first for Botswana.
For the first time ever, Dimension Data Route 73 MTB challenge was won by female and male local cyclists, Gontse Lethokwe and Lebopo Kono as overall winners. The historic win saw Lethokwe banking P13 000 as Elite overall winner and Kono bagging P9 500.

Cycle4Life Cycling Club, ushered a woman leader.

The development is not only an achievement for Cycle4Life, but the cycling community as a whole as this is a first for the cycling sport.

This has been seen as an accomplishment as more women and girls have been encouraged to participate in the cycling sport, and this could further cheer them on.

The annual Nedbank Desert Dash in Namibia, a 397km one night MTB race through the Namib Desert saw Cycle4Life club cyclists and others participating yet again and this time they were determined to finish the challenge and get medals.

This was the second time local cyclists entered and participated at this mentally challenging race. Last year they failed dismally to complete the course, but this year they went in prepared and learnt from their experience last year.

For the riders, it was a good year as the year was a competitive one in the cycling community as seasoned and semi-professional riders competed in both local and regional races.

Cricket
2023 was a good year for Botswana cricket with both the male and female senior national teams producing good performances on the international stage.

The Baggy Blues as the men’s national team is affectionately called, won the 2023 Africa Cricket Association (ACA) T20 Southern and Central Region Qualification Tournament held in South Africa in May.

They cruised to big victories in all their four matches, overwhelming Eswatini by 107 runs, Malawi by 100 runs, and Mozambique and Mauritius by seven wickets respectively.

Batsmen such as captain Karabo Motlhanka, Thatayaone Tshose, Vinoo Balakshrinan posted impressive half centuries in the tournament, while Dhruvkumar Maisuria led the charge in the bowling department.

Winning the tournament ensured that they progressed to the ACA Africa T20 finals, which are being held in Benoni, South Africa from 11th-19th December, 2023.

The competition is the national cricket tournament for all associate members from the African continent. The Baggy Blues started the finals positively with a 38 runs victory over Ghana.

The Baggy Blues, however, had a less successful outing at the Continental Cup T20
Africa held in Uganda in June, where they won only two of their seven matches.

The women’s team affectionately called the Herons, produced performances of grit and determination to reach the final of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Women’s T20 World Cup Division 2 Qualifiers held in Botswana.

They beat Lesotho by 173 runs and Malawi by five runs to finish second in their group, and qualify for the semifinals where they beat Sierra Leone by 17 runs. They lost to Kenya by nine wickets in the final. Their top two finish, however, ensured that they progressed to the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Division 1 Qualifiers in Uganda from 9th-17th December, 2023.

They, however, lost their matches against Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Kenya.
Swimming

Batswana Swimmers in 2023 competed in a lot of international competitions, although they did not win medals in some instances but they recorded their Personal Best times.

Netball
The Botswana Netball hosted the Africa Netball Cup which had Kenya, Namibia, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Zamibia women teams while men’s teams were from Botswana, South Africa and Kenya.

Kenya was crowned women champions after beating Namibia in a game that was fiery while South African men walked away with gold after beating Kenya. ENDS