Badminton steps up sponsors hunt
Kabelo Boranabi | Saturday April 1, 2023 06:00
BBA announced this week through its social media platforms that it has penned a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with CTMA as a sponsorship agent. CTMA is to be responsible for sourcing suitable sponsorship deals for BBA in an effort to refill the association's dry coffers.
BBA is one of the badly hit local sporting federations in an environment where sports have been deprived of sponsorships. The local BBA tournaments have an average of P1,000 winners' prize money with the recent decision to withdraw the national team from the singles event at the All Africa Mixed Championships held in South Africa in February, a reflection of the times.
At press time, the association was yet to share more details on the MoU with CTMA. Meanwhile, despite losing the women’s singles final at the recently ended UB Open, Tessa Kabelo has climbed to the top of the BBA rankings.
The UB Open was the 2023 BBA season opener. At the championship, Kabelo ousted long-time number-one-ranked woman player, Tebogo Ndzinge. Over the past seasons, the two have dominated the court in the women’s section, with Ndzinge being the better of the two most of the time. Kabelo and Ndzinge met again last weekend in the final of the UB Open held in the UB Indoor Sports Arena in Gaborone.
Ndzinge won the tightly contested final match as Penouua Kahaka settled for the bronze medal spot. Kabelo then teamed up with her long-term rival, Ndzinge to claim the women’s doubles title as the partnerships of Kesego Hamu and Asher Moruti and of Keletso Nteveba and Kahaka, were second and third respectively.
Kabelo went on to finish second in the mixed doubles alongside Modiri Motshegwe while Ndzinge and Tsamorena Kgodialwa were the champions. Tumisang Olekantse won yet another title on the day as he bagged the men’s singles.
Tshimologo Kopore and Tlamelang Kepaletswe were runner-up and third-placed respectively. The winners bagged P1,000, the second-placed pocketed P500 and the third-place finishers took home P300 each in the singles contest.