North defend BISA athletics title

47121,Koketso Kgoboge,, | Thursday May 19, 2016 00:00

The ‘Great North’ made a clean sweep at last December’s Botswana Games also held here. The north went into the BISA competition as defending champions and managed to retain their title.

The competition, which attracted four zones, saw the north amass 130 medals with 58 gold, 46 silver and 26 bronze.

The 2013 champions, North Central finished as runners up with 74 medals being 23 gold, 19 silver and 32 bronze.  South Central was third after winning 19 gold, 21 silver and 33 bronze medals followed by South with 20 gold, 20 silver and 26 bronze medals.

Maun Senior Secondary School’s Leungo Scotch was a marvel to watch as he took a clean sweep in all his four track events. The 20-year-old won four gold medals in the 200 metres, 400 metres, 4x400 metres and 4x100 metres relay.

In the girls’ categories, a new star emerged in 16-year-old Moeti Junior Secondary School’s Thomphang Basele who scooped three gold medals.

Basele will be among the 61 athletes selected to represent Botswana at the COSASA games to be held in Swakopmund, Namibia while Scotch who has set his eyes on qualifying for the Rio Olympics does not qualify for COSASA competition meant for athletes under the age of 17.

“I am happy with my overall performance, but I am not happy with my time. These games were part of my preparations for the Rio Olympic qualifiers, but I will continue working on improving my time for the May Rio qualifiers,” Scotch said.

Northern zone competitions organiser, Modiri Mokobela was content with the overall performance of his region.

“We are happy that we have managed to defend our trophy and we are also happy that most of the athletes are going to represent the country at the COSASA games,” he said.

“We are successful because unlike our competitors we have a technical sponsor in Linefeed (Pty) Ltd, which gives us an edge.  Our preparations for the competitions begin at our regional competitions and we are always confident of victory when we come here,” he said.

BISA publicity secretary, Letsweletse Jonas said the games were successful and called on sponsors to come on board.

“The games went out as planned and finished on time, but we still think we could have done a lot better with some sponsors. There is raw talent and this is where we unearth and start nurturing it,” he said.