Botswana falls short of All Africa Games target

Frederick Kebadiretse
Staff Writer | Tuesday September 20, 2011 00:00

The team won two gold, five silver and nine bronze medals. Only four sporting codes out of the 12 codes representing the country won medals. Boxing, athletics, karate and chess were the only codes that managed to bring home medals from the quadrennial event.

The Botswana national anthem was sung twice at the games, first for boxer Oteng Oteng as he became the first athlete to grab gold in the flyweight (52kg) division.

Oteng was joined by world 400m champion Amantle Montsho a few days later as the track queen successfully defended her Africa title in the 400m finals.  Karateka Ofentse Bakwadi got silver in individual kata while boxer Mmoloki Nogeng also won silver after sustaining an injury in the final bout. Meanwhile, Kabelo Kgosiemang failed to defend his high jump title, finishing second to grab silver.

The other two silver medals were won by Moakofi Notha and Boikhutso Modongo of chess. Karate got bronze in both male and female team kata while Thato Malunga got bronze again in individual kata and individual kumite.Gomotsang Gaasite wrapped up boxing medals with a bronze in the 61kg category. The athletics men's 4x 100m and 4x400 metres also got a bronze each after finishing third in the finals.

United States of America (US) based sprinter Obakeng Ngwigwa, who was also part of both relay teams, won another bronze in the 200m. The last bronze for the team came from Ontiretse Sabure of chess.Commenting on the team's overall performance, chef de' mission, Joshua Gabatlhaolwe, said despite failing to reach the 20 medals target, the athletes put up a good performance that shows improvement from the last games in, Algiers, Algeria in 2007.

He said although under normal circumstances the performance was not what they expected, they learnt much from the games that they can use to improve and achieve even better results in future. Gabatlhaolwe said it was worrisome that the medals accrued were only in four codes, as this shows that other codes are still falling behind.He said the challenge now is to bring the codes that did not win medals on board to also get some silverware in the future.

On the whole, apart from some minor hitches with officiating, everything went on well, Gabatlhaolwe said. The netball team decried poor officiating but never lodged an official complaint. He added they were satisfied with accommodation at the Athletes' Village and with playing facilities. The Botswana contingent arrived home yesterday.