Athletes sitting on ticking time bomb
Calistus Kolantsho | Friday November 16, 2018 12:36
This follows the passing on of 400m runner, Omphemetse Mokgadi, who collapsed this week during a training session.
The Botswana Athletics Association president, Thari Mooketsi told Mmegi Sport that they are still investigating the incident. He revealed that athletes are not taken through medical check ups when they are not members of the national team. “Athletes come from different clubs to train at UB Stadium and it is not possible for us to conduct medical check ups on them before they train,” Mooketsi said. “Medical check up is an expensive exercise that we cannot afford. Such tests are conducted in the national team because it has fewer members.”
He said runners who assemble at the Stadium are part of the long list preparing for the 2019 IAAF World Championships to be held in Doha, Qatar. Mooketsi said it is their wish to have athletes with a clean bill of health. The 32-year-old Mokgadi was certified dead upon arrival at hospital. Meanwhile, consultant cardiologist and Professor of Clinical
Pharmacology at Cardiac Clinic, Kiran Bhagat said it was not the first time such an incident occurred.
“Indeed, the commonest cause of sudden death is a heart problem. Usually a congenital issue (developed at birth). Either an electrical abnormality in the heart or a muscular defect/hole in the heart resulting in improper flow internally,” he said. Bhagat said in many countries, it is mandatory that all professional sportspeople undergo thorough examination and testing to ensure their cardiovascular status was normal.
“We should be taking on this practice and have long advocated such. We could certainly avoid these unfortunate events or at least exclude/treat those discovered to have such conditions as many are now amenable to treatment,” he said. When asked what could be done to avoid such incidents in future, Bhagat said there should be routine mandatory screening on all professional athletes, especially those with a family history of heart disease. “An initial careful screen of all systems - but focussing on the heart. Thereafter, annual review for simple screening if the initial tests were normal,” he advised.
The Botswana National Sport Commission chairperson, Solly Reikeletseng said Mokgadi’s death is a lesson to them as sport leaders. He said time has arrived for sport to be done in a professional manner.
“We should change the way we do things. When there is athletics training, we should have emergency medical services nearby. If there were medical personnel when the incident happened, maybe they could have saved Mokgadi,” he said. Reikeletseng said plans were underway to introduce insurance for national team athletes. He said Mokgadi’s passing is a big loss to the nation and he deserves to be honoured.