24 Mar 2024

Team Botswana has  bagged 13 medals at the just ended 13^th African Games in Accra, Ghana surpassing the set target of 10.

Athletics won six, three silver and three bronze, while swimming, and karate won two bronze medals each. Beach volleyball, boxing and taekwondo won one bronze medal each.

In the 2019 edition held in Morocco the country won 13 medals; five gold, five silver and three bronze.

And this feat, chef de mission, Shadrack Kapeko said was worth being celebrated as the team performed well though they had sent a smaller delegation compared to 2019.

Despite failing to win a single gold medal in the competition, he said the team outdid themselves to win the 13 medals.

“You will recall that most of the time we depend on 400m or 4x400m men’s relays for our gold medals, so in this edition our key 400m athletes did not compete in individual races but were focusing on both 4x400m and 4x400m mixed relays where they delivered silver in both events,” he said.

Although the tried and tested 4x400m men’s relay made up of Collen Kebinatshipi, Boitumelo Masilo, Leungo Scotch and Bayapo Ndori did not deliver a gold, he said he was happy with theIr performance.

Also, he said the coaches would have ample time to correct the team before the Olympics.

He said the competition went well for Team Botswana, adding that history was made after beach volleyball became the first team sport to win a medal in the games.

He said most of the codes performed well, while on the other hand it was clear that there were some areas that needed to be fine-tuned.

“We were using the African Games to prepapre for the 2024 Paris Olympics and 2028 Olympics and it shows that  the future is good.

If some the athletes who were competing here cannot make it this year, they will be in the next Olympics,” he said. ENDS