IAAF officer preaches unity between media, athletes
Calistus Kolantsho | Friday November 23, 2018 12:14
The 65-year-old said the media should find a way of gaining trust from athletes.
“When you trust each other that is when you can start working together.
I have been working with international stars and it is easy for them to pick up the phone and call me because they trust me,” he said.
“That way, as a journalist you can get exclusive stories,” he added.
Brockmann suggested that the Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) should have a communications officer who could make it easy for the media to access information, statistics and results.
He said the BAA should have a central point where information is distributed.
He said the association should grow the way athletes are growing. “Athletics in this country is on a high level and I expect BAA to be on the same level,” he said.
Brockmann is a German native who has been staying in Vienna, Austria since 1983. He has been a sport journalist since 1972 and has covered all big athletics events since then, which include 12 Olympic Games until Rio 2016.
He has covered all IAAF World Championships; both indoor and outdoor. “I have been working at IAAF as press delegate since 2007. I have been to all World Under-18 and Under-20 Championships.
I was the press chief for European Championships in Vienna in 2002,” he said.
He has been to 280 European championships. Besides sport journalism, Brockmann is a travel journalist and has been to 85 countries. Botswana Invitational Meet (BIM) organiser, Legojane Kebaitse met Brockmann in Finland, and invited him to visit Botswana. The two met during the IAAF World Under-20 Championship held in Tampere, Finland. “He was talking about going for a holiday and I suggested that he comes to Botswana.
His visit is expected to benefit the country because he has a lot of following on social media and other Europeans are already making enquires,” he said.
He said Brockmann travelled to Maun, the Okavango Delta and Kasane before coming to Gaborone. Kebaitse said Brockmann conducted a brief lecture with some journalists during his stay.
He said that was meant to capacitate journalists in athletics reporting and they hope this will ignite interest in athletics coverage.