Ruele settles for silver as gold eludes Botswana

Calistus Kolantsho | Tuesday August 27, 2019 15:29

 

She has two medals after collecting bronze in the 50m.

Ruele will now shift her focus to qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with an A standard. She said her plan was to do well and represent her country with distinction. “I have not competed under the Botswana flag in a long time. I have been training hard in order to make a strong comeback. I am happy about my second and third places, but I wish I had won a gold medal for obvious reasons,” she said.

Ruele said it was unfortunate that things did not work out the way she wanted.

She said at the moment her coach is still deciding on competitions that she should enter for her to qualify for Tokyo 2020. The chef de mission, Bobby Gaseitsiwe said he was impressed with Ruele’s performance. He said a better swimmer beat the Ruele in the 100m final.

“The focus is now on getting her to qualify with an A standard for Tokyo. She is currently on B standard,” Gaseitsiwe said. Team Botswana is currently on the back foot regarding gold medals at the Games. Botswana is in position 21 with 12 medals, which are one silver and 11 bronze, as gold continues to be elusive. Egypt is leading the medal table with 116 medals, followed by Morocco with 68. Algeria is third with 67 and South Africa completes the top four with 56 medals.