Athletes ready for opening Olympic races

BOITUMELO KHUTSAFALO
Staff Writer | Thursday August 2, 2012 00:00

 

 Amantle Montsho, Nigel Amos and Isaac Makwala carry the nation's hope in acquiring the first Olympic medal, with Oteng Oteng already out of the competitions following a controversial judges' decision on Monday.

Montsho starts her campaign tomorrow in round one of the women's 400 metres. According to Otsetswe, Montsho is in fine shape and ready to start the chase for that elusive Olympic medal. Montsho is the current African, Commonwealth and World champion in the category.

'If you look at all the competitions she has entered, you will realise that she improves all the time.

She is one person who is always aiming to do better than she did the last time,' Otsetswe told Mmegi Sport. He said that Montsho is not even worried being one of the favourites to win the race.

'The fact that her competitors see her as a threat is not a problem. Our main aim is to beat the time and forget about the opponents. If we manage to hit a very good time, we are assured of victory,' he added.

 Montsho will be competing against other high profile athletes among them, United States' (US) Sanya Richards as well as Great Britain's Christine Ohuruogu.

Ohuruogo beat Montsho in the last warm up race recently here in London.

However, that does not worry Montsho's coach. The conditions were poor on the day and the time that Ohuruogo registered on her victory is way below the time that Montsho did in many of the races she has competed in,' he said.

 Otsetswe also spoke highly of Makwala who will be competing in the men's 400 metre category. 'Makwala wanted to qualify for this event at all costs and you can see the results of his hard work.

With qualification now in the past, the focus is to reach the final. That would be a great achievement. In the final anything can happen,' Otsetswe said. Makwala starts his campaign this Saturday.

The semifinals for the category will be held on Sunday with the final taking place the following day.

 Amos makes his Olympic debut on August 6. The semi-finals take place the next day and the final two days later.

'Nigel's training programme has been running smoothly. With his age, he has not disappointed. He is one person who is always willing to do things on time, and I will not be surprised if ends up with a medal in this competition,' he added.

 Meanwhile, Otsetswe said they are very happy with the support they get from Batswana and pointed out that they will go out and make the country proud.

'By qualifying for the Olympics, we have done a lot, but we will not rest on our laurels.

I have faith in these athletes and I would urge all Batswana to accept the result even if it is not what they expected. Competition is tough here, but we do not doubt ourselves,' he said.