BAA neglects field athletes

local track and field circles.

“The last time there was a training camp, it was for preparation for Olympics and before the COVID 19 pandemic. In that team, there were four of us jumpers and when the team was downsized the entire jumper team became casualties. They couldn’t even leave at least two jumpers despite having performed well and standing a chance to qualify, “said a field athlete who prefers anonymity.

For quite some time much of the spotlight has been on 400m athletes and other race categories while those athletes specializing in jumps and throws have received little attention from the BAA leadership. While everything has stalled at grassroots level, the same thing can be said at the elite level since it’s been many years since Botswana took any field athlete to high profile games such as the Olympics and Commonwealth.

The last time BAA had athletes of repute from field events were during Gable Garenamotse and Kabelo Kgosiemang’s heydays. Back then the two athletes performed impressively well and raked medals at high profile events such as African Championships and Commonwealth games.

While Garenamotse has long retired, Kgosiemang is still very active but injuries have put him on the sidelines. Despite this BAA has never worked on grooming other jumpers and throwers for the future though there is a lot of talent locally.

According to athletes who spoke to this publication on condition of anonymity, the situation is so dire that even when it comes to national team trips to international events they are not given equal opportunities.

“The treatment we get at national team camps is not fair or equal. In most cases, jumpers and throwers constitute a smaller fraction of the team and for us the association normally sets out high requirement standards for us.

For example on a normal season I normally record 2.15 m in my jumps but one official once told me that for me to make it to the team of Commonwealth I should do 2.25m,” said one athlete.

“We train alone there at the national stadium.

There are no coaches to guide us on what to do and not do. In most cases we do what we learn from You Tube videos. For my whole life, I have never had a coach to train me or had a proper training schedule,” a frustrated field athletes told BG Sport.

Reached for comment on the matter BAA spokesperson, Oabona Theetso denied accusations of field athletes being ignored. He however, confirmed that in the last and current preliminary national teams, there were no field events athletes.

Theetso couldn’t provide a specific number of coaches who specialize in throws and jump events. “From the preliminary team, we had we didn’t have athletes who do jumps and throws but they are not being ignored. What we see as a problem here is lack of exposure from childhood stage and lack of specializing coaches more especially on field events. I don’t have specific statistics about field coaches,” Theetso said.