Botswana aims for a first with World Relays bid
Calistus Kolantsho | Friday February 21, 2025 13:28
If the bid is successful, Botswana will become the first African country to host the track and field global competition. The World Athletics Council will announce the bid winner on March 24, 2025. The relays are a qualifier for the World Athletics Championships and the Olympic Games. If Botswana wins the bid, the World Relays will coincide with the country’s 60-year independence celebrations. It is not the first time that the BAA has attempted to host an international athletics event after last year's efforts to host the 2026 Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) Senior African Championships, which were awarded to Ghana. The BAA vice president administration, Oabona Theetso, believes they did not lose the Senior African Athletics Championships bid on merit.
He said they have now completed the bid documents for the World Relays that were shared by World Athletics. He said the government is supporting their intention to host the event. “After we showed interest in bidding for the relays, World Athletics sent us some documents which were in a questionnaire format, some of the information they needed was on travel movements at our borders, which meant we had to request information from the relevant departments; we used that information to complete the forms. I cannot say the process cost us nor needed a lot of money as compared to other codes like football that had to come up with a Bid Book. It was just a budget for administration purposes,” he told MmegiSport. Theetso said the names of other bidding countries will only be announced at a later stage. He said the World Athletics Bid Committee officials will arrive in Gaborone today (February 21) to inspect facilities such as the National Stadium, accommodation and health facilities, amongst others, as a way to establish Botswana’s ability to host the relays. The visit will end on Sunday.
He said the main thing that motivated BAA to bid for the relays was to assist in diversifying the economy of the country, which is possible through sport tourism. He said they also want the rest of the world to witness where the likes of Amantle Montsho, Isaac Makwala, Nijel Amos, Letsile Tebogo and other talented athletes who have stepped up in the global arena originate. “If successful, the relays will not only benefit BAA, but the two-day event will benefit hawkers, the transport sector, catering industry, tourism industry and many other sectors,” he said. The 2024 edition was held in Nassau, Bahamas, where Botswana men’s 4x400m relay team were crowned world champions. The team was powered by Tebogo, who never put a foot wrong with Busang Collen Kebinatshipi in the second leg, Leungo Scotch in the third, and Bayapo Ndori anchoring the team to victory with a 2024 World lead of 2:59.11. The team went on to scoop a silver medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic medals. The 2025 edition of World Relays will be hosted in Guangzhou, China in May.