Suspension of sport not on the cards
Calistus Kolantsho | Saturday December 18, 2021 06:00
Serufho said if numbers are increasing exponentially from local competitions, then they would explore options including stricter requirements. He said the decision would also not be taken based on what happened in Lesotho. Meanwhile, athletes who remained in Maseru following the completion of the AUSC Region V Games arrived in Gaborone on Wednesday morning after testing positive to COVID-19.
The team reported 45 COVID-19 cases. The 35 cases were 27 athletes and eight officials. “They were airlifted from Maseru. All of them are fine, with the majority being asymptomatic while a few had mild symptoms.
The Botswana team and non-team members are in isolation, mostly at our facilities while a few have been released to their families,” he said. Serufho said the process to transport the team from Maseru was not difficult except that it involved three countries, Botswana, South Africa and Lesotho and as such the negotiations were a bit lengthy.
He explained that sporting codes that were mostly hard hit were basketball and volleyball while other codes had very little to no cases at all. “We do not know what the causes or the triggers were except that the codes shared a venue and unlike most codes that played outside, it was an indoor venue,” he said. Meanwhile, Botswana pulled off one of their best performances at the games finishing in position two with 64 medals (24 gold, 21 silver and 19 bronze). Athletics brought home 30 medals (16 gold, seven silver and seven bronze). Team manager, Doctor Mandawu said they remain hopeful that some of the team members will qualify for the World Junior Championships. “I am not putting pressure on them.
I also wish to see all of them at the 2022 Region V Games in Malawi. We have a lot of national and international competitions lined up next year,” he said. Volleyball boys team coach, Tebogo Kapeko said the boys did exceptionally well beyond his expectations because it was the first time the players competed at that level. “Watching them play, you would think they are regular players in the league. Looking at the inactivity of school sport and volleyball action in general, the boys were too good for their opponents,” he said. Botswana won all their five games, (Botswana 2-0 South Africa, Botswana 2-0 Zimbabwe, Botswana 2-0 Lesotho. In the semifinal, they beat South Africa 3-0 and in the final, the side walloped Zimbabwe 3-0. Kapeko said he hopes the Botswana Volleyball Federation will take it from there and develop the youngsters. He said the youngest player in the team was 16-years-old and one of the tallest. “I was happy together with my technical team. We managed to defend the gold medal that we won in 2018.
I appreciate that work has been done by Driller Sibanda and Kenny Mmusi. Region V Games are very important in sport development from roots level,” Kapeko said. Swimming team manager, Boitshwarelo Dzingai said they brought a bronze medal, which was won by the 4x100m freestyle relay team. The team comprised Ethan Harry, Takundanashe Gondo, Ethan Fischer and Junior Keitsile. She said most of the swimmers clocked good personal bests. “When you send a team to compete, you expect a win.
So, I still feel that they did their best. The competition was tight against countries such as South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola. The venue for swimming was the Rakopolana High Altitude Centre, which is 131km from Maseru,” she said. Dzingai said the start of the competition was delayed due to the venue not being ready. She said heats and finals, which were meant to be done in four days, were pushed to three days.