A struggle to paddle into limelight
The 2014 Africa Youth Games brought unlimited expectations as Botswana welcomed 51 countries to its capital, for a 10-day sporting festival. It was lauded as a game-changing spectacle, meant to leave a lasting legacy. However, five years on, some emerging
One of the enduring legacies from the 2014 Africa Youth Games held in Gaborone was supposed to be the emergence of elite sports, canoeing and rowing. The two have been active but struggling to reach the expected heights.
With most eyes on Gaborone from May 22 to 31, 2014, the two sports codes debuted in the eyes of most people.
Gaborone Dam was the venue and it was expected that an aggressive programme would ensue to galvanise more talent to join the sport.
However, a devastating drought, which emptied Gaborone Dam and most water sources in the country, followed. By December 2014, water levels at the Gaborone Dam had dwindled to a lowly five percent, not enough to carry out recreational activities.
This significantly slowed down the progress of the two sports.
But after the good rains the following year, there was no explosion in the growth of the two disciplines, even though a federation was established, and only a few athletes joined.
The country boasts a number of dams where recreational activities can be carried out. These include Gaborone, Letsibogo, Bokaa, Shashe, Thune, Lotsane, Ntimbale and Dikgatlhong dams, amongst others.
One would have envisaged a circuit of events, rotating amongst the various venues, modelled along the world famous Formula 1.
For instance, competitions would be held on a rotational basis, with the Gaborone circuit, Letsibogo circuit, giving all the venues an opportunity to host.
While canoeing and rowing are amongst codes that have not significantly benefitted from the remnants of the 2014 competition, Botswana National Olympic Committee, chief executive officer, Tuelo Serufho, said progress has been made.
“The positive legacy for rowing and canoeing is that we now have a national federation for those and athletes in the sport, albeit in small numbers,” said Serufho, who was part of the committee that organised the Youth Games.
He said there were challenges in having fully fledged rowing and canoeing activities.
“They include, but are not limited to, coaching
capacity, unsafe water sources and lack of equipment in other parts of the country. Our dams are deeper than lakes where such sports are often practised, some have crocodiles and generally difficult to access,” Serufho said.
In addition, Serufho said water sources are scarce. “There is no dam in Francistown, the only other city. Therefore, any athlete interested in the sport would have to commute circa 40km to and from Shashe to access a facility each time they need to train and there is no public transport on that route. The same would apply to those in (Selebi) Phikwe to access Letsibogo and other dams,” he said.
Serufho said the other hindrance is that there are no dams in other towns like Lobatse, Orapa, Jwaneng and Sowa, where there is economic activity.
He said the water sports were included in the 2014 Youth Games at the insistence of other federations.
“Just so that we are on the clear, the water sports were mainly hosted at the behest of international federations. They covered most of the costs including those of equipment and technical officials, with very little being covered by the organising committee. Of course, the organising committee fully supported the idea of creating new sporting opportunities for Batswana and residents of Botswana,” Serufho said.
Botswana Rowing and Canoeing Federation secretary general, Electra Vye said the sport is getting back to its feet.
“After the 2014 Africa Youth Games, our sports stagnated, but that was due to the fact that they are water sports, and the Gaborone dam did not have sufficient water in order for athletes to practice. Once the dam filled up again, most of the athletes had left Botswana to further their studies. In the past two years, we have seen an increase in interest in the sports and now have athletes training again,” Vye said. Former Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) chairperson, Solly Reikeletseng, who was in charge then, said the codes were included to tick the boxes.
“The bodies were set up just for the purposes of the games and not by people with a passion to drive the sports. The other dimension is that the games came at a time when the water situation in Botswana was dire,” Reikeletseng said.