Montsho, who was all teary to receive such recognition, even post retirement walked away with the WASBO award and the minister’s award. For the WASBO award, Montsho received P10,000 courtesy of Sprint Couriers. WASBO Chairperson Matlho Kgosi said they recognised Montsho because she had made an incredible contribution to sport and also enabled the girl-child to prosper. She said Montsho has defined an epitome of excellence. “We thank her for her contribution and we are immensely proud of her achievements,” Kgosi revealed. For the minister’s award which was presented by Minister of Youth, Sport, Gender and Culture Tumiso Rakgare, Montsho expressed her gratitude saying that her accomplishment is not something that she did on her own.
“There are many others who deserve to share this. I would love to thank everyone who was on my side since I started athletics when I was 12 years old. They have been with me until I retired. I am sure many will miss me on the track but this time I am gone and I am not coming back. I want to dedicate this award to those that I inspire,” she said. Montsho said she is now committing herself to developing and supporting upcoming sport talent. Montsho, who is usually a woman of few words, admitted that she is not a good public speaker before cutting her speech short.
She retired last year after participating at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and she was the first woman to represent Botswana at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, reaching the final at the latter edition and also at the 2012 Olympics. She has competed at the world championships and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) now World Athletics (WA) indoor championships, and is a former 400m world champion, winning with a personal best time of 49.56 in Daegu, South Korea in 2011.
Montsho’s splendid career was dampened by the two years suspension for an anti-doping rule violation after she tested positive for methylhexaneamine at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. She is a two-time African Championships gold medallist in the 400m. She has also won titles in the event at the 2007 All Africa Games, the 2010 World Athletics Continental Cup and the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Her Commonwealth win made her Botswana’s first-ever gold medallist of the games. Her personal best times are 11.60 seconds in the 100m, 22.89 seconds in the 200m and 49.33 seconds in the 400m. In 2006, the Maun-born star started training at the High-Performance Training Centre in Dakar, Senegal. During her stay in Dakar, she became fluent in French. She went to Senegal as a beneficiary of the Elite Scholarship where Ivorian, Anthony Koffi was her coach.
