The Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) have stated that they were happy with the six medals garnered by some of the thirteen athletes who recently competed in the African Youth Games in Morocco.
Despite this feat, the BNOC stated that they were expecting better results from Team Botswana. Speaking to BG Sports this week, the Chief Executive Officer of the BNOC Tuelo Serufho said that sporting codes across the board do not have the same resources needed for skills development.
Serufho cited that established sporting codes like boxing and athletics have the right resources to help them qualify for competitions like the Olympics and the Commonwealth games.
“Some codes are backwards because the resources to fully prepare them are limited,” he said. Serufho further revealed that new sporting codes in the country like swimming are having developmental challenges. He further said that sports stakeholders in the country including BNOC, Botswana National Sports Council (BNSC) and the government will meet soon and chart the way forward. The 23 man strong team, that represented Botswana at the Africa Youth Games in Morocco, arrived this week.
Leungo Matlhaku won the Girls 200m while Mmilili Dube won the Boys High Jump. Matlhaku also won silver medal in the Girls 100m while Oratile Kgalaeng (48kg) won a silver medal. Nigel Amos won bronze in the 1000m event. Amos was also a member of the Southern African team, which included Dube. The boys medley relay team won a bronze medal. The other athletes in judo, swimming and tennis did not win medals but the BNOC stated that they had positive feedback from their coaches.
The BNOC singled out 15-year-old Matlhaku for her performance amongst other decent performances from Botswana. According to the BNOC, the teenager achieved the great feat of being the African Youth Games Girls 200m champion at the tender age of 15 against rivals who were mostly 17 years old. The Youth Olympic games will be held next month in Singapore. Sporting codes taking place from Botswana include athletics, swimming and judo. Yesterday the BNOC held a welcoming ceremony for the team in Gaborone.
