Coach accuses BNOC, PASSOBO of failing Mabote

The two organisations faced the wrath of coach Raj Rathedi as he put it in Setswana saying ‘ngwana wa batho o ne a latheletswe.’ Rathedi was speaking at a press conference held at the BNOC conference room to welcome the 400m T12 runner, Keatlaretse Mabote yesterday. Mabote finished in the third place. “You do not prepare during the competition, but in advance. I had only five months to prepare the athlete for the Paralympics games. I had expected that Mabote would get the same training that was offered to the Olympics team,” said the disappointed coach.

Rathedi said he started off by assessing the athlete and he realised that he had not been training. He revealed that they only had one training camp in South Africa and after that, things fell apart. He said there was no support from anybody and it was a frustrating situation for him and the athlete. He said that meant he had to adjust the training programme many times.