The BNSC is running against time to hand over the stadium to Golden Door Sports Agency for the much-anticipated Grand Prix slated for this Saturday. With the rains continuing to pour through the city, Makuke raised fears that the Grand Prix might not come to fruition. “If the situation continues as it is, I mean the rains, it means that there will be no venue for the event and if there is no venue for the event it basically means there could be no event,” Makuke warned.
Makuke indicated that they had anticipated that by now, the stadium would have been handed over to the organising committee.
“We had hoped that we would have finished over the weekend as the remaining material arrived on April 4 but then we had rains which delayed us. And when we thought we would start today the rain hit us at 8am further delaying us,” Maduke sadly said.
As uncertainty hovers on the much anticipated event whether it would take place or not, Makuke has implored the organizers to plan for the worst as the rain might not go away.
“As part of the project team my advice would be that the organisers call for an emergency meeting with World Athletics and ask for postponement of the meet by at least two weeks and people worry that it cannot be done but it can,” he advised.
Makuke identified postponement of the meet as the only plausible solution to the inconveniences Botswana finds itself in as athletes are even expected to land in the country from Thursday.
“Honestly speaking there is no other alternative rather than postponing this event. I mean take for example our venue Obed Itani Chilume Stadium it is not available same applies to the Lobatse Sports Complex Stadium,” Makuke said.
Asked if there is anything that could have been done to avoid the dire situation the country finds itself in, Makuke revealed that the only issue was time.
“This project was supposed to take a period of six months and it started on December but then we were told of this event and the contractors had to work against time now hoping to finish it by March end but we were disturbed by floods and waiting for materials,” he said.
Looking on the bright side of things if the rains do eventually come to an end, Makuke said that by Friday they would have handed over the stadium. He highlighted only the top surface granules are left behind.
“What we are supposed to be doing now is to apply blue granules which is only three layers and it only takes three hours to dry as everything is automated. From applying the granule we will be left with marking of lanes which can also be done in a day,” he said.
He put an emphasis that this can only be achieved if the rain does stop but if does not there will be no grand prix for Botswana on Saturday.
Makuke implored Batswana to join hands and pray that the rain does stop and the track be completed finally.
Some of the lined up athletes for the grand prix include Botswana’s very own first Olympic gold medalist Letsile Tebogo, Akani Simbine (South Africa), Ferdinand Omanyala (Kenya) and Andre De Grasse (Canada) among others.
