Manyepedza said the period for the training camp ahead of the championships was too short compared to what was afforded previous teams. He said in future, the team should camp away from Gaborone to avoid interference by club coaches. “The issue of personal coaches is disturbing. You are busy coaching the team, someone comes and takes their athletes to the side to coach them. I am preparing the national team, such a trend destabilises and divides the team. When you are not a national team coach, allow the national team coaches to do their job. The relationship between athletes counts, but now we have two teams in the camp. These are junior athletes, they do not need personal coaches,” he said. Manyepedza felt that the team did well although some athletes were carrying some injuries. He said there was a challenge in choosing an athlete to field due to the times that the team brought to the competition.
“I had a small team. It was a challenge for any changes to be made. The times that my athletes had on paper were old, the likes of Ernest Kumevu, Keorapetse Oreokame and Thabang Monngathipa last competed in May while some competed in June. It was difficult for them to compete against athletes who had competed two weeks before the championships,” he said. Manyepedza said the women’s team had athletes with slower times of 58.90s and 57.67s but were expected to compete against athletes who brought sub51s or 53s. He said the absence of School Sport cannot be ignored. He suggested that there should be youth competitions that should be held alongside the senior competitions. Manyepedza said the women’s 4x100m team will be able to compete at the 2025 All Africa Junior Championships in Madagascar because they will still be in the junior category. He urged the Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) to keep the team together as they have the potential to be the best in the future. He said they had to deal with Kumevu and Monngathipa’s recurring injuries. “The two athletes seemed to be healed but when the intensity of the competition increased, the injury recurred. The challenge is that clubs will now be responsible for assisting them to get proper rehabilitation. Clubs do not have funds to support the athletes and it is up to the Association to assist,” he said.
