Olympics, BFA elections headline busy year
Mqondisi Dube | Saturday January 13, 2024 06:00
Football's difficult start
Football has plunged into a crisis after the infamous December 16 gathering of Premier League shareholders in Palapye. The game is struggling to recover from the events of that afternoon where Nicholas Zakhem and Jagdish Shah were removed as directors. This week Zakhem was suspended as the BFL shareholder while Shah reportedly resigned. But Zakhem is digging in, insisting procedure was not followed.
This week, a meeting called by the Botswana Football Association to try and find common ground, failed to resolve the matter with this weekend's Premier League and First Division matches cancelled. The Minister of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture, Tumiso Rakgare has waded into the crisis but the BFA was quick to dismiss his intervention. It promises to be a drawn-out matter that could disrupt the season.
BFA goes to the polls
Between August and October, the Botswana Football Association (BFA) will head to the polls with incumbent, Maclean Letshwiti, former president, Tebogo Sebego and host of other names linked with the race for the top post. As has been the norm in the past, the elections attract considerable attention and are the most followed of the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) 48 codes. The BFL dispute is already setting the stage for a bare-knuckled contest. Letshwiti is expected to seek a record third term, while Sebego could look for a comeback after a stint between 2012 and 2016.
The Mares at the WAFCON
The Mares return to the Women's Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) finals for the second time in a row. The team is among 12 nations to battle for the continental showpiece to be held in Cote d’ Ivoire this winter. It was an impressive run for the team during the qualification phase. The Mares recorded the highest aggregate win by any national side as they beat Gabon 10-1 in the first round of the qualifiers. The team also had one of the best defensive records, conceding just twice as they found the back of the net on 13 occasions in four games.
The Mares will be looking to better their debut appearance performance where they finished in the World Cup playoff round, and became the first national team to make it to the knockout phase. The local girls are yet to learn their group stage opponents and hope to avoid continental powerhouses such as Nigeria, Morocco and South Africa who are the reigning champions.
Paris Olympic Games Botswana has been competing at the Olympics since 1980, winning its first medal, a silver through Nijel Amos in the men’s 800m in 2012. The men’s 4x400m relay team won a bronze medal during the Tokyo 2020 Games. It is another hectic season for athletics with eyes on sprint sensation, Letsile Tebogo. The wonder boy proved that he would be challenging for a podium finish in Paris after a brilliant display last season when he brought home two medals, a silver in 100m and a bronze in 200m, from the Budapest World Athletics Championships.
Tebogo has qualified for the men’s 100m and 200m and for the first time in a long time, the nation is convinced an Olympic gold medal is on the way. Other athletes who have already qualified for Paris are Leungo Scotch (400m), Collen Kebinatshipi (400m), Bayapo Ndori (400m) and Tshepiso Masalela (800m). After being disqualified in Budapest, the men’s 4x400m relay team stands a chance to improve its rankings during the World Relay Championships set for Bahamas in May.
The team is number nine out of 16 teams that automatically qualify for the Olympics. Other National Sport Associations (NSAs) attempting to qualify for the Olympics are boxing, beach volleyball, swimming, weightlifting and taekwando. There are World Athletics Continental Tours and Diamond League competitions that local athletes would compete in starting with the FNB Botswana Golden Grand Prix in April.
There are also World Indoor Championships in Glasgow in March. Peru will host the World Under-20 Championships in August. Before catching flights to the France capital, the athletes will make a stop in Accra, Ghana for the African Games, which run between March 8-23.
Other moments to look out for
Two chess players have qualified for the Africa Games, being FIDE Master (FM) Gomolemo Rongwane and Woman Candidate Master (WCM) Natalie Katlo Banda. The two made it through at the expense of opponents from Mozambique, Namibia and Malawi for a slot in Accra. The Botswana Table Tennis Association (BTTA) is gearing to host the Africa Youth Championships and the Commonwealth Youth Championships, both slated for mid-July. The Botswana Volleyball Federation (BVF) will host a beach volleyball tournament, which is a qualifier for Africa Games from January 26-28. Only two countries would qualify. Finally, the long anticipated Lucara Botswana Netball League kicks off this weekend, after receiving P300, 000 sponsorship from Lucara Botswana. Action goes back to the courts with hope of new talent expected to increase national teams’ pools. The Botswana Swimming Sport Association (BSSA) will send a team to the World Aquatics Championships in Doha. The championships are set for February 2-18 and it would serve as the last swimming qualifier for Paris 2024. Team Botswana would be amongst 2, 600 swimmers from 190 nations.