COSSASA tips Botswana to host successful games
Kabelo Boranabi | Wednesday August 10, 2016 13:33
Speaking during a facility inspection tour on Monday, Duiker said the country has never failed the association when hosting any of their events and commended the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for their efforts.
“We met the LOC earlier. We are very happy with the work they put in. They are working tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure that in two weeks time we will have a successful tournament,” he said. He however revealed that accommodation remains the only challenge, but is optimistic that they will try to pull it off before the event starts. “The few challenges that are there is where the teams will be accommodated, which teams would be staying where. Those things are not yet finalised, but within the next two days I will ensure that when I leave the country I will be able to inform all the member countries (that) Botswana is ready to host the tournament.”
“Of course there are a few hiccups, we are from Africa, we are used to that. The facilities in our countries are not of high quality but with what I have seen here I will speak of it in high volumes. That’s why I’m saying what we have seen here its better than that of the other countries,” he said. Five codes will feature at the tournament that runs from August 22 to 28 being volleyball (Under-15 and Under -17, boys and girls), basketball (Under-17 boys and girls), rugby (Under-17) boys, netball (girls Under-17) and football (Under-17 boys and girls). The participating countries are Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Zambia and the hosts Botswana.
The games have a good track record of producing fine athletes amongst them Olympic silver medallist Nijel Amos, 400m sprinter Baboloki Thebe, South African-based footballer Mogakolodi Ngele, netballer Tumisang Bagidi and Tracy Chaba of volleyball.