Athletics redefines sport landscape
As Botswana celebrates 55 years of Independence this week, there is a reason for sport, particularly athletics, to be optimistic. The addition of a second Olympic Games medal in August emphasised the positive trajectory local sport has made in recent years.
The last decade or so has been particularly rewarding, with Botswana having a first ever world champion and winning its inaugural medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Amantle Victor-Nkape (formerly Montsho) was crowned 400m world champion in Daegu, South Korea in 2011, while a year later Nijel Amos became the first local athlete to win a medal at the Olympics when he finished second in 800m.
Botswana was forced to wait for 10 years before adding on to the Olympics medal tally. It came during the last day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games when the 4x400m team came close to bagging a silver medal but had to settle for bronze. In between, there has been a medal harvest at the Commonwealth Games and the Diamond League, firmly placing athletics as the undisputed leading code. Athletics continues to project a bright future after the Under-20 side took the world by storm at the World Junior Championships in Kenya last month.
Tebogo Letsile is one of the brightest prospects in world athletics after he won gold in the 100m and bronze in the 200m. Anthony Pesela is also another who has the potential to be a world-beater at the senior level after winning a gold medal in the 400m.
The same cannot be said about the country’s most popular sport, football. The game has stuttered after a brief shining moment which saw the Zebras qualify for their first, and thus far, only Africa Cup of Nations finals in 2012.
A lot was expected post 2012, but it has been a sometimes frustrating period, punctuated by rare runs in the regional COSAFA Cup in 2016 and 2019 where the Zebras reached the finals.
The women’s national teams have shown a lot of promise, but there have been concerns the support from the association is insufficient.
The Mares made history in 2019, beating a Banyana Banyana side that was fresh from the World Cup finals. The team also reached the finals of the COSAFA Cup last year.
Local sides have found the going tough in CAF club competitions but Township Rollers made history when they qualified for the group stages in 2016. There has been a worrying decline
for codes such as netball and volleyball. The two have not seen much local action, despite the earlier glimmers of hope. Boxing made a timely return to the Olympics this year, after going through a lean spell, while weightlifting will hope to kick on after their first ever participation at the Olympics through Magdelene Moyengwa.
Bowling was once a promising prospect with consistent participation at World Championships. Softball is a force to reckon within the region after some strong displays at the World Championships in 2017, where they reached the last eight. Other codes are huffing and puffing, with particularly administrative issues frequently popping up to throw spanners in the works.