Manyepedza defies odds with athletics team
Calistus Kolantsho | Saturday December 17, 2022 06:00
Some of them felt that their athletes deserved to be in the team but were somehow overlooked. Other coaches felt that the athletes who made the team were related to the coaches who were in charge of the team.
The complaints even reached the Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) president, Paphane Botlhale's desk.
However, Region 5 Games team coach, Nico Manyepedza did not allow the dark cloud hanging to affect his plans, which resulted in Botswana scooping 38 medals. The team dug deep to scoop 11 gold, 17 silver and 10 bronze medals, claiming second position behind South Africa.
The number included medals from the Paralympic Association of Botswana (PASSOBO) team. Manyepedza told Mmegi Sport that it was his first time leading a Region 5 Games team. “But it was not the first time that I coached the national team. I was in charge of the Confederation of School Sport Associations of Southern Africa (COSSASA) Under-20 team twice.
It was easy to work with the athletes because I worked with most of them at COSSASA, which was part of School Sport competitions,” he said. Manyepedza said the team performed very well looking at the number of camps that they held.
He said they held two camps, with the first one being used to prepare the athletes and they were able to select the team for Region 5. “You must remember that there was a team that had competed at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships in Cali.
They were not invited to the first camp as they had to rest. The second camp was organised for those athletes from Cali and it was the final selection. After that, some of the athletes did not pitch for training due to reasons known to them,” he said.
Manyepedza said the absence of some athletes benefited others who were excluded from the selection. He said one such athlete who benefited from was Kago Seshoka, who was not part of the Cali team.
He said Seshoka had a good competition, winning two gold medals and a bronze. He said Seshoka clocked a personal best (PB) of 47.14 in 400m, which is a good time for a young athlete born in 2004.
Seshoka beat Collen Kebinatshipi’s time that he registered at the last Region 5 Games when he won a gold medal in the boys' 400m during the 2021 Region 5 Games in Maseru.
Other athletes who brought PBs from Malawi are Winnie Sarefo (100m), Obakeng Kamberuka (200m), Neo Motani (400m) and Sethunya Majama (100m). “I was working with this team alone as my colleague, Kebonyemodisa Mosimakoko, had travelled for a course only to join the camp on the last day. We feel the number of athletes that made the team was small, 15 girls and 15 boys.
Under normal circumstances, a relay team should have six members each, that is 12 athletes already before you touch long-distance and field events,” he said. Manyepedza explained that they had to compromise and select athletes who can do various events instead.
He said despite the challenges, they had a good competition.
Manyepedza noted that the athletes belong to different clubs, with different coaches and it takes time to gel and work with a national team coach. “School sport has affected us a lot and we rely on clubs to give us athletes.
If they do not have athletes of the age limit that we want, we struggle. We still rely on the 2019 COSSASA team. I still ask myself what will happen when they become seniors because a majority of them were born in 2003. School sport can bring us a variety of runners to choose from,” Manyepedza said. He added there is a need for the return of school sport because they depended on it as an academy.