BAA hosts last Field, Track event

Larona Makhaiza | Tuesday June 28, 2022 03:49

Athletes competing during the Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) series final at the National Stadium in Gaborone on 25 June 2022. (Pic:Monirul Bhuiyan/PRESS PHOTO)

The competition was held to give local athletes an opportunity to redeem themselves. The likes of Baboloki Thebe, and Bernard Olesitse were some of the athletes who were looking forward to qualifying for the upcoming Commonwealth Games, World Athletics U20 Championships, and the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.

Olesitse on his 400m race fell short and could not continue with his race after picking up a hamstring injury soon into his race, and fell down. He will unfortunately not be part of the upcoming international competitions.

Thebe on the other hand seemed to be in a perfect body shape as he got to run his race without any hiccups, but that was not enough for him to qualify for the upcoming international competitions as well, meaning he will mark another season without seeing him on the big stage in individual races.

Though the likes of Thebe and Olesitse failed to qualify for the upcoming competitions, BAA vice president, Oabona Theetso revealed that, “there are other athletes who have long qualified for these competitions. “The likes of Letsile Tebogo, Isaac Makwala, and others have long qualified for the competitions, and the team that has qualified for the competitions has long reported for camp to kick-off start the preparations.

Theetso pointed out that the team has got the government, BAA, BNOC, Debswana, and Wealth Athletics as their sponsors, and noted that Debswana had donated P3 million.

The World Athletics Competitions Oregon22 are set to be held on July 5-24, 2022 at the United States of America, while the Commonwealth Games are set to take place from July 28, 2022 till August 8, 2022 at Birmingham, England. The World Junior Athletics are set to take place from August 1-6, 2022 at Cali, Columbia.