Birmingham failure: Where did it go wrong?
Calistus Kolantsho | Saturday August 13, 2022 06:00
In June, ahead of the team's departure to Birmingham, the Botswana National Olympic Committee held its Ordinary General Meeting where the affiliates were informed that the medal target at the Commonwealth Games was eight.
A team of 36 athletes represented Botswana, the largest ever contingent the country has sent to the Games. However, only 33 athletes competed. Botswana competed in athletics, boxing, cycling, judo, lawn bowls, squash, swimming, and weightlifting.
The Commonwealth Games report will be eagerly awaited to shed light on what transpired in Birmingham. Below, Mmegi Sport looks at the performance of some of the codes compared to the 2018 competition.
Athletics
The performance was below par compared to the Gold Coast competition in 2018. There were legitimate expectations that the team will perform well, against a backdrop of brilliant performances from the code over the years, particularly in Gold Coast where there was a medal haul of five. Coach, Brendan Tautsagae said all hope is not lost despite the below-par showing in Birmingham.
"There is a pool of athletes who can still do the job going forward, hoping they remain injury free. Some athletes formed the team that qualified for Tokyo 2020 although they did not go due to injuries and other factors. Boitumelo Masilo and Ditiro Nzamani were part of that team. The boys are still in contention for a place in the relay team and individual events. Baboloki Thebe is also still in contention," he said.
"Not everything is lost, there is still hope with the likes of Galefele Moroko expected to bounce back. Going into Paris 2024, current juniors will have graduated as seniors. The challenge is what will happen after 2024. We may not have felt the impact of the lack of school sport yet but certainly, soon we will feel the pinch. The gap will be felt before long. One of the reasons for the dismal performance will include losing great athletes to retirement, Amantle Montsho and of course the unbudgeted and unexpected retirement of Isaac Makwala.
That could have unsettled the team and frustrated their plans," he added.
Boxing
Boxing won a bronze medal through Lethabo Modukanele, which was a first for women's boxing. The code did not bring any medals in 2014 and 2018. It last brought a medal in 2010 through Tirafalo Seoko’s silver and Oteng Oteng’s bronze. Trainer, Thebe Setlalekgosi said this was boxing's best performance. "It was the best performance by the team. Three more boxers like Lethabo could have won the medals if they had started in the quarterfinals like her. Her teammates lost to gold medallists, which shows that they fought tough opponents in the quarterfinals. This team needs more time with me as I have only been with them for four months and there is a lot that I need to work on," he said. Coach France Mabiletsa said COVID-19, amongst others, had disrupted plans. "Preparations in the last 18 months after the Olympics had many challenges due to COVID-19 and limited funding. Boxing had close to nil local and international competitions. Only in the last two months did our boxers go to Mozambique and Zambia before heading to the Commonwealth [Games]. We had no expectations based on preparations," he said.
Bowling
Bowling put up a brave fight but failed to win a medal and singles player, Marea Modutlwa is satisfied with the outing. "We failed to make it past the round-robin stage for the Triples discipline. Overall, we are happy with our performance, making the quarterfinals for the Fours discipline, especially in a tough group that included Australia and Scotland. Hopefully, we will do even better at the next games. We are as good as the top countries. Even the matches we lost, the scores were very close," she said.
Cycling Botswana Cycling Association president, Kagiso Potongwane said the sport was testing the waters on its debut appearance. "It was a debut for cycling. Previously, we sent a team to the Commonwealth Youth Games in the Bahamas in 2017. The games were a good opportunity to test our development progress. We did fairly well in the Mountain Bike Cross-Country (MTB XCO) competition more than in the road race event. The results are a good opportunity to reflect on our development approach and we will use it as a yardstick for future planning and initiatives," he said. "As a newly elected committee, our priority at the moment is to focus our energies on having the right structures and policies at the club level. We also want to ensure that we have the necessary policies in place to support development. Women's inclusion is also a priority and we want to create an environment where we have more women in our structures and also as athletes," he added.
Swimming
Up against world-class swimmers, Botswana Swimming Sport Association president, Andrew Freeman feels the team did well. "The swimmers performed well considering their events were populated with world-leading swimmers. Although they didn't make the finals, James Freeman swam a personal best time in the 200m freestyle and Adrian Robinson a personal best in the 50m breaststroke, which are both national records. Maxine Egner is a young swimmer who has gained valuable experience at this multi-sport event," he said. "Our top athletes have been able to get competition-specific support, which we appreciate. We are aware of the constraints.
At the elite level, our top swimmers have also been able to get outside funding like American college scholarships, International Swimming Federation (FINA), and the Olympic movement. COVID-19 was a big challenge to local swimmers and the effects of being off for many months are still there. Our pool of swimmers is small, less now than before COVID-19 and our challenge is to grow the base where funding is often not easy to get," Freeman added.
Squash Koketso Ntshebe said there is a need to improve the level of the game. "We need to step up and move these athletes onto another level. They are ready for the transition, especially Leungo Katse. It was a very educative event for us and we will definitely hit the road running; some great lessons learnt in the past month," he said.