It is my delightful and great pleasure, coupled with a sense of nostalgia to be part of this exciting and auspicious occasion to welcome home Team Botswana from the Games of the 30th Olympiad in London. Having participated in sports myself, this ceremony brings fond memories of my time in St Joseph's College where I set a record in high jump. I played for Kgale XI and the equivalent of a national Soccer Team. Words cannot sufficiently describe how excited I am this evening for this country's feat! Botswana is on the map of the sporting fraternity!
Today, I stand tall to welcome Team Botswana following their historic and impressive performance at the 2012 London Olympics games.
The medal, which was won by Nigel Amos in the men's 800m is indeed worth celebrating. Botswana's flag was hoisted for the first time ever in our history together with flags of other countries. The medals ceremony symbolized our ceremonial arrival into the world of competitive sport. I believe our country has potential and is indeed ready to be counted amongst the world's best in sport. This is true because in the 800m race, seven out of the nine athletes ran their Personal Best times, which shows how competitive we were!As we celebrate the achievement on account of teamwork and collaboration among all the stakeholders involved, I pay special tribute to the Amos' family for bringing Nigel up to be a respectful and fine young man he is today. If he was not respectful to his teachers and coaches, he would not have recorded the significant milestone in Botswana sport history that we are celebrating today, and we will no doubt continue to celebrate in future.
