04 Jun 2024

Participation of women and girls in cycling remains low.

Speaking in an interview ahead of the Mountain Bike (MTB) National championships to he held in Gaborone Sunday, Botswana Cycling Association (BCA) president Kagiso Potongwane said the association  still recorded low numbers of women participants  in cycling events generally not just on national championships. 

“Attracting women and girls to racing remains a challenge, however we continue with our efforts together with our member clubs to attract women to the sport,” Potongwane said.

Whilst women and girls  participation remains a problem, the association nevertheless continues to improve the national championships in order to be competitive regionally, continentally as well as globally. Last year, BCA introduced a pump track feature with a challenging drop, increasing the technicality of the route as per the international cycling events standards.

Potongwane said they had not added any new feature, but hoped the pump section feature would  still excite riders.

“The route is also still technically challenging and will give competitors enough obstacles to challenge them,” he said, adding that however there was a slight deviation on the track due to previous rains.

MTB National championships will be in categories of youth, junior, under 23, elite, vets, masters and grand masters both males and females. 

Race entries for youth and junior categories is P150 whilst the rest of the categories is P200. 

And registration is done at www.ticketlinc.co.bw.

The 2024 MTB Nationals are supported by Botswana National Sport Commission, MMG Khoemacau Copper Mining, Kwa Nokeng Oil, Motor Vehicle Accident Fund, D&G Cycles as well as ER24/7. Ends