National Stadium track gets thumbs up
Calistus Kolantsho | Tuesday March 31, 2026 09:05
The venue will host the World Athletics Relays from May 2 to 3. World Athletics has classified the track as a Class Two athletics facility and meets all the technical requirements of the World Athletics rules for the relevant competitions. The expiry date for the certificate is January 2031. Speaking to Sport Monitor, the event director, Thomas Ndazila, said the track is perfect because some of the athletes repeated events, but nobody complained.
Regarding the accreditation of the track, he explained that World Athletics has promised to issue the certificate after World Athletics Indoor Championship.
“It was also dependent on payment for the classification. Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) paid around P28, 000 for the certificate. The event went well but there were some mistakes by officials. Maybe it was because this year we did not have events,” Ndazila said.
Meanwhile, Enoch Adegoke of Nigeria's 4x100m relay team, said the track is of good standard and complement what they had been doing during training.
He explained that they came together from different training groups to represent their country. According to the athlete, the target was 38.05 which although the team failed to meet, they finished in position one, stopping the clock at 38.98.
“We have the potential to run faster, but we have missed the qualification standard for World Athletics Relays. Botswana has been doing pretty well, putting our continent on the global map. “We are looking forward to them continuing to continue with excelling,” he said.
A member of Botswana's 4x100m quartet, Xolani Talane said the track was top-notch and it is at a standard that can see athletes delivering fast times.
He added the refurbishment has brought the much-needed quality. Talane was part of a team that finished in position three behind Nigeria and Kenya, clocking 39.31.
He said for the World Athletics Relays, they expect to have more time of almost a month to prepare. Other team members were Thuto Masasa, Kelvin Lobatla and Jayson Mandoze.
“The competition gave us much needed practice and we are looking forward to becoming 4x100m champions because faster athletes will be introduced in the team, such as Letsile Tebogo,” Talane added.
The youthful 4x400m women’s relay team that comprised Batisane Kennekae, Karabo Mantswinyane, Lebitso Makorufu and Naledi Monthe won their heat clocking 3:38.27, with Kenyan coming second in 3:45.31 while Nigeria finished third in 3:57.33.
The youngest member of the team (21), Mantswinyane who ran second leg, said she was excited about her performance and lessons she picked.
She said the race was not for position but it was about posting better time ahead of the World Athletics Relays. For her part, Kennekae said the race was perfect although her leg was painful in the beginning.
Miranda Cortzee who was part of the South African 4x100m relays team, highlighted that they had a minicamp before coming to the competition.
However, she bemoaned that they did not have enough time to practice hand over, although the exchanges during the race were perfect because of the connection they have as team mates.
Meanwhile, Nigeria mixed 4x100m quartet of Chidera Ezeakor, Maria Thompson, James Taiwo Emmanuel and Obi Jennifer Chukwuka set a new African Record of 41.44s to secure a World Athletics Relays qualification.
The team is now ranked position 12 in the relays qualification. Kenya finished in second spot with a new National Record of 41.70s.