FRANCISTOWN: The Botswana Games Local Organising Committee (LOC) has declared it is all systems go for the competition, which gets underway at the Francistown Sports Complex at 5pm tomorrow.
The games run until December 13 and will be held at various facilities in Francistown, Tonota and Shashe; attracting 2,607 athletes, 250 officials and 500 volunteers in 13 sporting codes.
LOC chairperson, Bobby Gaseitsiwe said preparations are in order.
“Preparations are going well; we are done in terms of upgrading the facilities. We are more than ready with all our facilities. Schedules are also ready and we have completed tosses and we are only awaiting our participants.
“We are finalising logistics and at the moment we are not where we want to be, but hopefully by the end of the day tomorrow (yesterday) we will be at 110 percent. So far so good, we are happy,” he said. “We are expecting teams to arrive today and everyone will be in before lunch hour so they can get their accreditations and be ready for the evening opening ceremony.
“At the moment, we are doing finishing touches on rehearsals for the opening ceremony and the closing ceremony, it is nothing very expensive but it is very entertaining and rich in culture,” he added.
Meanwhile, the hosts, Team Francistown chairperson, Thabo Mokoti said they have prepared well and they are targeting gold medals in all the 13 codes.
“As Team Francistown, we are going in for medals. We are participating in all sporting codes. The best athletes in the country come from the north and that alone is a motivation and a challenge to our athletes to keep that fire burning. We have confidence our teams will perform well. “Our teams have been in camp since Friday last week and our preparations are at an advanced stage. We have qualified trainers, coaches and team managers from different organisations, including BDF, teachers and some local qualified coaches assisting us. We are very strong competitors,” Mokoti said.
