Table tennis

the 2014 Botswana Integrated Sports Association (BISA) national championships senior girls singles by scooping a gold medal. Later on, she competed in Confederation of Universities and Colleges Sports Association (CUCSA) games in 2018, where she qualified for World Tertiary games in Napoli.

“My mother supported my sport way too much but as time went on, I had to be on my own, my vision to become number 1 in table tennis pushed me to achieve high in the sport.

Being self -driven, committed and disciplined made me a great player that I am right now. I got a call up to the national team in 2017 but I could not make the final cut of the region 5 squad.

That on its own was an upset to me. Besides that, it made me realise that my dream of playing in the national colours wasn’t out of reach,”

she said. In 2020, Kuswani qualified for the national team and competed at a tournament that was held in Bloemfontein in South Africa. In 2022 she competed in the World Table Tennis Qualifiers at Johannesburg in South Africa and won a bronze medal in the ladies team events and also qualified through the same tournament for Africa Table Tennis Senior Championships that was held in Algeria in September.

For his part, her coach from BDF table tennis club, Welcome Tema added that Kuswani is a very consistent player because ever since she got selected for the national team, she hasn’t dropped out from the squad since 2020 till to date.

“I started training her from 2016, I polished her skills by introducing her to a competitive game and since our club trains every day and with the right training aids, she adapted to full time training sessions, morning and afternoons.

She is an ambitious player and always willing to improve the game; works hard and she can even do herself a training schedule during spare time,” Tema said.

He said that with continued support and given more professional training set up, Kuswani can go far because she is committed and determined. “She is a versatile player tactically, and a complete player in terms of executing all table tennis strokes and drills.

I will say she can defend and attack as well, depending on the opponent’s response on the table,” he noted.