Sport stars and duds of 2014
Thuso Palai | Wednesday December 17, 2014 09:10
For me, there were some individuals who stood head and shoulders above the rest and really did well for Botswana. Among the shining lights were athlete Nijel Amos, administrator Tuelo Serufho and the Africa Youth Games TeamBotswana. There are a few other names and organisations I could mention as having stood out, but these we’re my main achievers.
One of Botswana’s shining lights in 2014 has been 400metre runner Amos. His explosive season was capped with a nomination for the IAAF athlete of the year. This showed that he is indeed a force to reckon with in his discipline. He has continued to break records and his star continues to shine. Despite the reports that he has derailed, he has kept his eyes on the ball, and one can only hope that he keeps on the straight and narrow. With great man management, he will go places. He has done wonders for the country, and put Botswana on the world map.
Amos is still very young and if he keeps on then straight and narrow, he will become a force to reckon with for a long long time. He is already dominating his discipline and is improving, as evidenced by his record breaking exploits this season. He had a fruitful, successful 2014 and is a certainty for the 2014 sportsperson of the year award, if we were to award it today.
Another individual who did wonders is not a sport man but a sports administrator. Having come through the ranks as an administrator at the Botswana National Sports Council (BNSC), Tuelo Serufho is a well-mannered, shrewd sports administrator. He has always been at the forefront of sports administration, but he came to prominence when he was appointed Chief Executive of the Africa Youth Games dubbed Gaborone2014.
Despite all the challenges and the pessimism we had, he pulled off a great show and made many eat humble pie. All along he was cool, calm and collected. At no time did he get derailed by the negativity that came in thick and fast, and at times very harshly. He kept his cool and kept his eye on the ball. He is no sports star but for me, he was one of the most key persons in sport in Botswana in 2014. He made Botswana proud and ably led us to host a successful Africans Youth Games. For me he deserves great commendation.
The Tshepo Sitale led teamBotswana at the same Games also did wonders. Although there were murmurs of ill-preparedness, they outdid themselves and competed toe to toe with the Africa powerhouses, annexing 31 medals. For the first time, Botswana took part in your not so mainstream codes. The mere fact that we participated and competed in such disciplines as canoeing, fencing, rowing, weightlifting amongst others, spoke volumes. As a whole, the team represented the country well.
For me the biggest let down this year has been the Botswana Football Association. Not to sound too negative and harsh, Tebogo Sebego has really tried hard to turn the BFA around but he is being let down big time by some within the association, some of whom are his close allies. And if that happens, we cannot help but blame the head of the organisation, and the buck stops with Sebego. The BFA has never been far from the headlines, and in most cases, for the wrong reasons.
Football is the most popular, most bank-rolled, most attention grabbing, most followed sport in the country and this results in it being in the spotlight all the time. It therefore follows that it will be more scrutinised. However, with the BFA you don’t have to even scratch the surface as the shortcomings are glaring. I must say, most of them are self-inflicted and perpetrated by certain individuals who are not doing the President and the Association as a whole a favour. There are a few more, but no one comes close to the Football body. There is no denying that something needs to be done for the Association to redeem itself.
As posited before, This was a bitter sweet year for Botswana sport, and the most unfortunate incident that could have befallen us is the small matter of Amantle Montsho finding herself on the wrong side of a doping test. This was quite unfortunate and to this day, I cannot for one second believe that Montsho would knowingly dope.