Botswana gets P450,000 wrestling mat
Calistus Kolantsho | Wednesday April 9, 2014 10:35
Botswana became the first beneficiary after a vote by the 44 wrestling countries in Africa.
“Botswana Wrestling Federation (BWF) became the first federation in Africa to be assisted by FILA after the confederation decided to start a programme that will help African wrestling federations with wrestling equipment,” Botswana Wrestling Federation (BWF) president, Moagi Sharp told Mmegi Sport yesterday.
He said the donation has come at the right time for BWF because they have tried to seek help locally but they were unsuccessful.
He said the grant they get from Botswana National Sports Council (BNSC) is not enough to purchase wrestling equipment.
The decision to give Botswana the mat was made in Tunisia last month during the 33rd Senior African Wrestling Championships.
African Confederation of Associated Wrestling Styles vice-president, Manie Van Den Berg who doubles as South African Wrestling Federation secretary general received the certificate of award on behalf of BWF.
Moagi said that Batswana would start to see wrestling activities once the mat arrives. Without the mat, it has not been easy to teach people wrestling, he said.
BWF has been using karate mats for their grassroots development programmes in primary schools in and around Selebi-Phikwe. Sharp said the mats were only used for training purposes as they do not meet FILA standards. BWF could therefore not use them for competitions.
Sharp said from the benchmarking trips in South Africa, clubs are using karate mats for training and the BWF decided to take the same route because of financial constraints.