AUSC inspects Botswana facilities
Naledi Lemogang | Friday September 8, 2017 15:16
Gaborone hosts the eighth edition of the AUSC Games in December next year. The regional organising committee, delegates and the local organising committee, this week, toured proposed venues for next year’s tournament.
The tour also included facilities for accommodation, hospitals and restaurants to be used. Despite that they were happy with most of the facilities, particularly the University of Botswana Indoor facility and UB Stadium, AUSC delegates are yet to give the state of readiness for Botswana to host the games. During the tour, most of delegates were quick to give both positive and negative impressions, share ideas on how a particular facility could be improved before the games.
The games include swimming, athletics, boxing, basketball, gymnastics, tennis, volleyball, netball, football, judo and athletics for visually impaired. AUSC chief executive officer, Stanely Mutoya said the main purpose of inspecting the proposed facilities is to ensure they are ready before the games.
He said they are happy that Botswana, which recently hosted the junior netball world cup, will organise the AUSC games. “We are aware that Botswana recently hosted a successful world event. However, this time around we are organising a multi discipline event. The games include 10 different ball sporting codes. That is why we have to be a bit tense during the inspections to ensure successful games, especially that Botswana would be hosting them for the first time,” Mutoya said.
He said this was the first inspection before the second inspection that will be done at a later stage. Meanwhile, AUSC spokesperson, Siyabonga Sangweni said they are expecting about 2,000 athletes from Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe for the games.
He said some facilities, which do not meet requirements, would be used as training grounds. He said this was their first step towards the preparation for the games and they would later on move to other sections.