Ebudilwe cycles to the top
Calistus Kolantsho | Wednesday November 15, 2017 18:00
As a Form Five student then, she, along with her friends, were given the opportunity to represent Botswana during the games. However, her friends have since quit the sport.
But not so for Ebudilwe who grabbed the opportunity with both hands and has since not looked back.
Ebudilwe, who is the national mountain bike and road race champion, told Mmegi Sport that passion drives her.
“Before the national mountain bicycle championships, I went for training in the Alps, Austria. I stayed there for five weeks in cold conditions. Competing upon my return was easy. Back in Austria the terrain is tough due to the weather,” the 21-year-old said.
She said her coach, who is based in Austria sends her a training programme through electronic mail and she makes sure that she follows it.
After winning the mountain bike championship, Ebudilwe went on to claim the Bank Gaborone Botswana Cycling Association (BCA) National Championships recently. To emphasise her dominance, Ebudilwe beat her competitors to the finishing line on Sunday to win the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) Otse-Kanye challenge.
A member of Tsela Riders, Ebudilwe said cycling is expensive and her parents are not able to afford the bicycles and her club supports her a lot.
“Botswana Cycling Association (BCA) always sends us to South Africa and that assists us a lot. My plan is to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games,” Ebudilwe said.
BCA president, Mmetla Masire said they went scouting around schools only to find Ebudilwe in 2014 when she was still a student at Ledumang Senior Secondary School. He said they are impressed with her performance over the years.
“We want her to be consistent like Ayuso Benado who is currently in Spain. We think Ebudilwe should start competing in Tours. We are in the process of sending her to Rwanda where they are putting together an African women’s team. She would be attending trials for about a month, and hopefully she would qualify,” Masire said.
He said the African team would be competing in the women’s international Tours. Masire said it is expensive to organise a team for Tours so it would be easier if it is a continental team because sponsorship would be from different countries.