School Examinations delay sports action
Current examinations by tertiary institutions are the main reasons why BotswanaTertiary Student Sports Association ( BOTESSA) have not yet resumed the bulk of their activities after government gave sports associations the green light to resume action.
T h is was s ai d by BOTESSA Communications and Marketing Officer, Emmanuel Seiphetho who said they wanted to give their students time to focus on academics since it is a crucial time. Despite the current examinations and final year course work, schools were affected by frequent lockdowns which means most students are left behind with course content. Therefore, returning to playing fields while academic work was lagging was the main challenge for the tertiary sports body.
“Just like any other sporting body we have been affected by the Covid- 19. So right now after games were given permission to resume action we found ourselves in a tight situation because we use university students. Right now all our athletes are writing examinations which means even if we have the greenlight as BOTESSA, we can’t manage to play. So, we have taken a decision to give our athletes the chance to complete the syllabus,” explained Seiphetho.
BOTESSA National championships, Bracket Indoor & Outdoor competitions, athletics championships and half marathon are some of the high- profile events which make up the sporting calendar. He further said despite moving all activities to early next year they have given non- contact sporting codes the permission to start training since they were ready to comply with Covid- 19 protocols.“As BOTESSA we were more than ready when it comes to compliance, just to tell you some games which can be played virtually we have started doing them and for non- contact sports we have given our affiliates the consent to start training for next year.
But due to some requirements of interzonal permits we cannot allow for competitions so what we are doing now is drafting our calendar of events for the year 2021,” Seiphetho said.