Volleyball team makes a vow
The national team travels to Malawi for AUSC Region 5 championships
The Botswana Volleyball Federation ( BVF) President, Tsoseletso Magang has vowed to defend their gold medal at the upcoming AUSC Region 5 games slated for Malawi next month. The volleyball boys’ team defeated Zimbabwe 3- 0 last year to reclaim their place as the Region 5 champions and this year the target remains the same for the team. “The importance of defending the gold we won last year is that it will not only result in us being proud of the kids, it is about securing our space at the next competi
prove going forward,” Magang said in an interview this week. Moreover, she said the youthful team has been given all the support and motivation. “We have given them the much needed support and to motivate them, this kind of trips motivate them to work hard and want to traverse the world.” However, she pointed out that the lack of school sport has affected not just them but sport in general, having to pick the national team is difficult. “We base our selection on the history of players who used to play, we have not had school sport for over four years and this is a drawback for us.” She said if school sport doesn’t start in January as promised there will be a serious problem because the youth national teams are not exposed enough and there is no proper identification of upcoming talent.
The competition comes at a time when the country is struggling with resuming school sport, which is normally used to select athletes for the Region 5 Games.
Botswana is sending a team of football ( boys and girls), netball, tennis, volleyball ( boys and girls), PASSOBO ( boys and girls), athletics ( boys and girls), boxing ( boys and girls), and swimming ( boys and girls).
Moreover, the football teams have never progressed to the knockout stages at these games and this year they might turn around their fortunes and at least go through to the knockout stages.
On the other hand, boxing will also be the sport to zoom eyes on, the sport has over the years produced outstanding young pugilists and many will want to see if any new name will emerge at the upcoming games.
The games will be used as a precursor for the 2028 USA Olympics, Botswana National Sports Commission ( BNSC) Chief Executive Officer ( CEO), Tuelo Serufho recently reported to media outlets that the team will not have any set targets at the upcoming games to allow the youngsters an opportunity to grow.