15 Apr 2024

Botswana will send three teams to the World Athletics Relays that will be held in The Bahamas from May 4 to 5.

More than 40 countries are expected to compete and the top eight countries will automatically qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games that will be held in Paris July.

Botswana’s 4x400m men team will be back once again at the Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium in Nassau, the same stadium where the team nearly beat America for the first time in 2017.

During the final, Karabo Sibanda, who was anchoring Botswana team, was neck to neck with USA veteran runner LaShawn Merritt, and they finished on position two with a Season Best time of 3:02:28, while America clocked 3:02:13.

Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) vice president, Oabona Theetso said they would be sending three relay teams to the competitions.

He said Botswana team would comprise the 4x400m mixed relay, 4x400m both men and women.

Although it is the first time BAA is sending the mixed relay team to the event, Theetso is confident that they will do well, looking at their good performance at the African Games.

As for the 4x400m men, Theetso said BAA was confident that they would bring good results looking at their experience of competing at international level.

“We will be pleased if our women’s relay team can do well at the competition.

Remember, not a single woman has qualified for the Olympics so far; we will be happy if the team can qualify,” he said.

Theetso said the women’s team qualification would go a long way in motivating other girl-children to work hard.

He said as the BAA they were worried that women did not make it to compete at the international stage in individual events.

In the last edition that was held in Silesia in 2021, Botswana’s 4x400m men’s relay made up of Isaac Makwala, Boitumelo Masilo, Ditiro Nzamani and Leungo Scotch finished third with a time of 3:04.77, behind Netherlands and Japan. ENDS