FCTVE ready for BOTESSA Nationals
The Francistown College of Technical Vocational Education ( FCTVE) has big targets in the upcoming FNB BOTESSA National Athletics Games, slated for this Weekend at the National Stadium in Gaborone. The event will gather several upcoming youngsters from across the country.
Speaking in an interview, ahead of the games, FCTVE Student Representative Council ( SRC) President, Mmilili Maphakwane said the team had proper preparation and is ready to take on the challenge. “Our coaches have been preparing the team, the main focus for them has been the start for sprinters and endurance for long distance runners, while in other events we were focusing on technique,” he said.
Moreover, he said the main challenge has been the equipment but the athletes are de
termined to work even with available equipments.
“Most of our equipment is dilapidated but the team is more committed, they work with hurdles and spikes that are torn, the focus for us is to do better; we just improvise and use what we currently have.”
He added that facilities in the institution are also not up to standard, “we are not sport based as an institution so you find that we don’t train on a proper track and when we come across a track it becomes a problem for our athletes,” Maphakwane stressed.
Several athletes have qualified for CUCSA Games with Harold Motlhanka managing to finish the 100m with 11.14 and looks like he has got the potential to improve going forward.
Motlhanka will be eyeing several other opportunities, to impress national team coaches for a slot in the national team.
Thalefo Ramatala and Widzani Mujanki from the high jump event managed to cover a distance of 2.05m and they have already qualified for CUCSA and they are the only jumpers who have qualified country wide.
Bonatsame Majwabe qualified for the national finals with a time of 27.2 seconds in the 200m category and 63.14 in the 400m category; the multitalented Majwabe managed to reach 4.86m.
“Looking at the performance, we are expecting 4 gold medals, 3 silver medals and 1 bronze medal looking at our times.” Nevertheless, the main effort for FCTVE is to have several athletes compete at the biennial CUCSA Games which involve ten Southern African Countries, consisting of Botswana, Lesotho, Angola, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Swaziland, Malawi, Namibia, Mozambique and Zambia.