The Botswana National Sport Council (BNSC) yesterday moved to assure the nation that all is being done to ensure the track will be completed on time. Preparations for the Golden Grand Prix have been marred by concerns over the readiness of the track, with work falling behind schedule. This has left the nation on the edge, but on Thursday, BNSC CEO Tuelo Serufho, offered an assuring update. Serufho acknowledged that the mother body's back is against the wall regarding the track deadline. Despite the setback, international athletes have been arriving throughout the week and Serufho remained optimistic that the meet will be a success story.
“We have really made great progress. Yesterday we commenced stage one of three of the layer track, which we have already completed. We are now set to move onto to the second layer of the track set to be done today (Thursday),” Serufho said yesterday. In addition Serufho indicated that after applying the second layer there will be a little bit of break before the workers can continue to put the third layer. The pause is meant to allow the layer to dry up. “If we finish in time we will complete the stage three of the blue layer by this evening (Thursday) so that tomorrow morning we can mark the lanes for the track,” he said.
With this timeline, Serufho is confident the BNSC would be able to hand over the stadium latest today (Friday) afternoon before tomorrow's event. The facility will be handed over to Golden Door Sports, who are the organisers of the Grand Prix. “The contractors are expected to hand the stadium to us tomorrow so that in turn we hand it to the organisers of Grand Prix so that by evening athletes can use the track for training,” Serufho said. For his part, Glody Dube of Golden Door Sports Agency, said some of the athletes are already in the country despite the track not being complete. “Most of the athletes have arrived. The likes of Ferdinand Omanyala, Americans and Jamaicans are here as well as our local athletes. We are expecting big numbers today (Friday),” Dube said. Meanwhile, Batswana have been implored to continue purchasing tickets for the meet with all pointing to the event going ahead as planned.
