Botswana has potential to host world events
Phatsimo Kapeng | Saturday December 11, 2021 06:00
Kip Keino Classic chief executive officer, Martin Keino made the remarks during a visit to Gaborone this week. Keino and Charlotte Kurgoy, an administrative officer at Athletics Kenya and also head of administration in the Kip Keino Classic visited Gaborone as an invitation from the Gaborone International Meet (GIM) Local Organising Committee (LOC). The visit is part of the requirements by the World Athletics as GIM prepares to host the Bronze Meet 2022. The Meet is scheduled for April 30 at the National Stadium. The Kip Keino Classic is a track and field meeting held at the Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi, Kenya and named after Olympian Kipchoge Keino.
The inaugural edition took place in 2020 as part of the inaugural World Athletics Continental Tour. Keino said in September they invited GIM director, Glody Dube to the Kip Keino Classic. “We hope that he picked some lessons from the event. We have hosted World Athletics Continental Tour-Gold level for two years successfully. We have one more next year in May, a week after GIM 2022. We wanted Dube to come and witness what a Continental Tour looks like in Africa,” he said. Keino said in turn they were invited to visit Botswana to come over and take GIM LOC through what is required and what assistance we could provide as similar event organisers in Africa.
He said they believe that the LOC has many things in place, especially the facilities, support and some of the categories in the LOC that need help. “We have been here since Sunday and we had a workshop with the LOC. We would like to see a successful event in Gaborone. We are excited of the possibilities that Botswana has of organising a major world event. You are blessed with a lot of local talent and your relays team is known globally. GIM should showcase local talent and the opportunity of hosting major world event,” Keino said.
He said the aim of the visit is to share their knowledge and make sure that it is a success. He said Botswana should be hosting a Diamond League event in the near future. Keino and Kurgoy will issue a report to the LOC before their departure. GIM LOC chairperson, Barulaganye Mogotsi said they tried to apply for recognition by World Athletics in 2018 and 2019 but the applications were rejected because they did not meet some of the requirements. He said in 2020 they sent another proposal to World Athletics, which was successful. “Last year, we were awarded the bronze category but unfortunately the event was not held due to the outbreak of COVID-19. We then postponed the event to May 2021, which was also cancelled due to the pandemic,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mogotsi said in terms of preparations for 2022, the LOC has embarked on enquiring with countries, which hosted events during COVID-19 for lessons. “We have booked the National Stadium as the venue and UB Stadium as the warm up area. We are now working on identifying a minimum of a three-star hotel as an athlete village.
This is a requirement from World Athletics for us to finalise our agreement with potential accommodation providers. We need financial assistance,” Mogotsi said. The other bronze meets will be held next year in Auckland (New Zealand), Christchurch (New Zealand), Sydney (Australia), Melbourne (Australia), Florida (USA) and Hiroshima (Japan).