09 Feb 2024

Botswana Motors Sport (BMS) through Maverick Motor Club will send a trio of youngsters to the Africa Motor Sport Challenge in Zwatkorp, South Africa next week.

The trio; 15-year-old Ofentse Kgosana, Mohammed Ahmed, also 15 years old and 13-year-old Hamza Mohammed will participate in the challenge, which will run from February 15 to 17 with a stake in the European Championships in mind.

According to Joseph Khengera of Maverick club, the invitation was forwarded to clubs courtesy of the BMS and his club managed to identify the three youngsters to represent the country there.

“We are blessed to represent the country and we have confidence that the three youngsters will bring back some medals home. It might seem like a tall order especially that we have not been having such competitions in a while, but we are confident in the talent of the country. We want to send the boys out to more challenges,”he said.

The vice president of the Africa Motorsport, Simon Modisaemang said the challenge came at a time when the status of BMS had been a concern.

“There has been a lot of internal fighting in the federation, and we need to sit down and iron out our differences because this affects productivity. We should seize this opportunity and use it as a chance to smoke a peace pipe,” he said.

Modisaemang also said the local motorsport had lost a lot because of such internal fights, hence an urgent need to reflect and come up with a solid solution to take motorsport forward.

He also urged the local federation to take the Go-Kart category seriously as it was the grassroots development for bigger international races.

Modisaemang also applauded parents of the children for forking out of their pockets to sponsor the children, saying that it was a necessary sacrifice as BMS was still financially challenged.

He said as the federation, they would try by all to meet such efforts halfway by availing opportunities for the children to gain more experience. “In the near future we will also ensure that we identify kids with talent from all corners of the country”.

Local Go-Kart veteran, Peter Kernick also reiterated the need to start the sport at grassroots for it was more affordable at that level. Kernick indicated that the Go-Kart category was a breeding ground for some of the greatest racers of international meets, such as the Dakar Rally and Formula One.

He said like any other sport, motorsport also required commitment from individuals.

He also raised the need to seek sponsorship for participants since the sport could be costly.

“This requires a collective from parents, companies groups and others. I am certain that we can get it right if we put our commitment to it,” he said, and expressed confidence in the three young athletes.

For their part, the three flag-bearers indicated their readiness for the challenge, saying that they had been training hard for the event, and that they were hoping to bring home some medals. Ends