13 Feb 2024

Botswana will send a strong team that will compete at the 13th African Games, to be held from March 8-24 in Accra, Ghana.

Botswana National Sports Commission (BNSC) sports development director, Peaceful Seleka said in an interview that in the last edition Botswana had a bigger delegation and managed to win 13 medals; five gold, five silver and three bronze.

He said this year they would be sending a smaller delegation and therefore the target is 10 medals.

He explained that the country would be represented in nine sporting codes, adding that they had prioritised the sporting codes that would help the BNSC to attain its vision, hence they took the nine which were also Olympic sports.

“But we are not saying other sporting codes that are not Olympic sports are not important or not helping us in achieving, but the ones that we have selected this year are those that we feel have potential to qualify and ultimately bring us medals at the 2028 Olympics,” he said.

He said they had included athletics, basketball 3x3, boxing, beach volleyball, swimming, tennis, weightlifting and taekwondo.

Seleka said in the team sport, they had prioritised basketball 3x3, boxing, and beach volleyball, adding that it was based on their performance.

“When you look at beach volleyball they are doing very well, given that they are currently top in Africa, and at some point were ranked number one,” he said.

He said basketball 3x3 had also been a force to be reckoned with, adding that the team competed in Kenya and Egypt, adding that the men’s team was currently ranked 8th in Africa.

Seleka said the rest of the sporting codes had been consistently to the Olympics, ‘hence we thought we must give them a chance once again’.

He pointed out that since resources were limited, it was important to prioritise and realign activities with resources and targets.  

“Our budget is not much, but is adequate to take us to the Games,” he said

He said they had been preparing for both African Games and Olympics at the same time.

“As a commission we have adopted a different approach towards how we prepare for the Games, and we prepare well in time,” he said. ENDS