Dolphins, Delta Spirits in decider
The Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) will host its National Championships from May 26-28, 2023 at the National Stadium. However, the competition, sponsored by mining company Debswana, will be without some of the star attractions, who include Letsile Tebogo, Leungo Scotch, Bayapo Ndori, Isaac Makwala, Collen Kebinatshipi and Anthony Pasela who will be away participating in the Diamond League in Rabat, Morocco.
BAA vice president, Oabona Theetso confirmed the development to Mmegi Sport but the association still expects a strong field to fill in.
“We have started marketing the event and it will be free entry,” Theetso said.
In a statement, the BAA said participation in the championships is strictly by invitation. Only the top 16 performing athletes across youth, junior and senior categories are scheduled to compete at this event, the BAA said.
“This is an event where athletes would seek to improve their rankings and attempt qualifying marks for major championships scheduled ahead such as the Budapest 23 World Athletics Championships, Africa Youth Games, Commonwealth Youth Games and All Africa Games,” the statement reads.
Athletics will look to leverage the success of the recent FNB Botswana Golden Grand Prix held at the National Stadium at the end of April.
The event is the who-is-who in the world of athletics and attracted a huge crowd at the National Stadium, which is expected to give the sport momentum as local athletes prepare for international tournaments.
The Botswana Basketball League will draw to a close with a mouth-watering grand finale between the South league winners, Dolphins who will face the victors in the North, Delta Spirits.
Dolphins will start the final as odds are on the favourites as they are a side that has always proven on numerous occasions to be a tough nut to crack. Dolphins annihilated their opponents to qualify for the grand finale and are tipped to lift the title against a side without much experience. The North league is represented by rookies, Delta Spirit.
The Maun-based side was formed in 2022 and in their maiden season, Delta went on to qualify for the grand finale.
Not only did Delta qualify for the grand finale in their maiden season but the newcomers are also the first ever champions of the North Basketball League. Now after the first impressive start, people will wait to see if Delta will continue with its fine form and shock the country by emerging as the national champion. The Botswana
Basketball Association (BBA) president, Boineelo Hardy said the journey for the winner between Dolphins and Delta will not end at a national level.
“The winner of the National Championship will also qualify for the Basketball Africa League (BAL) which is a competition for Africa, partnered with the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA),” she said.
BAL is a basketball competition for Africans formed back in 2019.
Teams for the BAL competition are picked by virtue of being champions of their domestic leagues. Reflecting on how the tournament turned out, Hardy was elated with the ‘great progress’ that they observed as BBA.
“It has been exciting for us. We have seen the tournament grow and for the first time, we had a league played in the North that consisted of teams from Orapa, Phikwe, Maun and others,” she said.
“For the first time we will bring the North league winners to face the South league winners and this is really the significant growth,” she added. However, Hardy bemoaned that the teams will not be getting any prize money. “Unfortunately, we do not have prize monies for the tournament although we had a great tournament. We had been hoping to land sponsors, but we did not get any,” she said.
Hardy said they had hoped to reach an agreement with one of the potential sponsors, but they did not come to any.
Although Hardy decried the lack of sponsors, she extended gratitude to KFC for being there during the entire season.
“We have a partnership which is the one that has been giving support to the teams by giving food to the teams and merchandise and for this we will forever be grateful to KFC,” she said.
Hardy pleaded with the private sector to come on board and invest in sports so that the games in Botswana could thrive and make it worthwhile for the players that have to spend their little monies to go to training and games.
The league is expected to resume in August and Hardy hopes that by then, BBA would have found sponsors for the tournament.
On Friday, the action will start with the women’s grand finale between Dolphins and Police V at 6pm, followed by the men’s final at 8pm.