BOKA delivers a mawashi geri on local karatekas

Bathai further said although Covid-19 has disrupted their calendar of events, they used the time away from the dojo to review and work on the new policies.

One of the policies to be enacted will be the Finance and Procurement Policy, which will help with compliance especially with financial reports from their affiliates.

“We’re going to have a three-day workshop for treasurers from all our clubs to train them on financial reports,” he said.

He also told Voice Sport that the executive committee decided to move the High Performance Centre from Mogoditshane to Lobatse Senior and Materspei College in Francistown.

“We are planning to launch the third Re Ba Bona Ha Centre in Kanye next month,” Bathai told Voice Sport.

Furthermore, Bathai said the British Karate Federation has also come on board and will conduct an online training for coaches and referees.

Meanwhile, one of the country’s top Olympic prospects, Ofentse Bakwadi, believes it is still too early to throw in the towel. Bakwadi said there are still opportunities to be explored and that lack of funds should never be a deterrent for sports persons with a desire to compete at the highest level.

“I had my own campaign dubbed #Road2Tokyo2020 aimed at raising funds for my qualification journey, which I stopped when BNOC came on board,” he said.

The hopeful athlete says he understands that BOKA does not get enough funding to meet all of their expectations hence his decision to run a parallel funding campaign.

“I’ll meet our president and see how best he can assist. My intention is to raise enough funds to compete in the open Championships,” Bakwadi said.