Gaseitsiwe looks back with pride over 400m success
When Bobby Gaseitsiwe was appointed the Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) technical officer in 1996, all he wanted was to turn the country into a sprints powerhouse. The project saw him transverse the length and breadth of the country searching for talent.
Gaseitsiwe told MmegiSport that nothing pleases his heart than to see all the hard work bearing fruit through the men’s 4x400m relay team winning a gold medal at the 2024 World Athletics Relays over the weekend.
He said something should be done to have more women run the 400m, adding that the current crop of athletes including Christine Botlogetswe, Lydia Jele and Obakeng Kamberuka is talented, but they need to work extra hard.
“During my time as the technical officer at the BAA, also as a trained coach, I realised that Botswana had so much talent across all events but our strongest area was jumps, long sprints being 400m and 800m.
Those who were running 100m and 200m were good but the reaction times were too slow and therefore not suitable for those races. At that time we had many athletes running and winning in 100m and 200m but I knew they would not make it at the international level,” he said.
Gaseitsiwe said some of the athletes included Obakeng Ngwigwa, Amantle Montsho, Kgalalelo Sefu and Kagiso Kilego. He said many athletes were interested in sprints because their training was not as strenuous. Some of the athletes who excelled in the 200m were
Zaa Goitsemodimo, Justice Dipeba, Goitsemodimo Dikinya and Rampa Mosweu. He said the athletes also excelled in the 4x400m relay.
He said when it came to 800m, he had strong runners in Glody Dube, Gakologelwang Masheto and Otukile Lekote who were used often in the relays. He said other athletes in the relays were Johnson Kubisa, Tshepo Kelaotswe, Califonia Molefhe, Agrippa Matshameko, Kilego and Zachariah Kamberuka. “Relay is a fun event, and most of them did not realise that it was my way of introducing them to the 400m flat. There were opportunities for these athletes. Dipeba, Ngwigwa, Masheto, Rampa and Lekote received athletics scholarships in the United States of America (USA) as they successfully represented us in the 400m. In addition to the track scholarship, we applied for funding to take athletes to High Performance Centres (HPC) in Dakar (Montsho and Kamberuka), Nairobi (Dube and Onalenna Baloi) and Germany (Molefhe),” he said.
Gaseitsiwe said there was exceptional talent in Makwala, Montsho and Tshotlego Morama who were funded under the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) Zebra Elite Fund for training and keeping them in Gaborone for training.
He said 400m became popular and it became a brand for Botswana. He said Ngwingwa won a 400m bronze medal at the 2004 World Junior Championships.
Molefhe won a silver medal in 400m at the 2006 World Indoor Championships in Moscow, becoming the first Motswana to win a major international medal. As for Montsho, she dominated 400m, representing Botswana at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, reaching the final at the 2008 edition. She was the first woman to represent Botswana at the Olympics and she is a former 400m world champion during the 2011 edition in Daugu, South Korea.
Makwala is also a 400m success story having been a 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallist and winning continental titles. Together with the 4x400m relay team, he won a bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, a silver medal at the 2017 World Athletics Relays, a bronze medal at the 2021 World Athletics Relays and a gold medal at the 2024 World Athletics Relays amongst others.
“We started doing well in the relays and the rest is history. A brand was made and most athletes went for 400m. I believe we do not dominate fast twitch muscle fibres to enable us to explode from the blocks and dominate 100m and 200m. But that might happen with time.
The BAA leadership has done an exceptional job in maintaining and supporting athletes who are doing well. I am of the belief that we can also excel in jumps and 800m, we have the talent,” Gaseitsiwe said.
The former BNSC sport development director said he was happy that former athletes, Dipeba, Kabelo Kgosiemang and Gable Garenamotse are coaches while some are active as sport administrators.
Gaseitsiwe said he visited the home villages of almost all the athletes that he coached, met with their parents and assured them about the safety of their children in Gaborone.
“I visited the homes of Montsho, Makwala, Kamberuka, Moroko, Dube, Molefhe, and Ngwigwa amongst others. It was my obligation because I believed it was in our interest to know the parents of our talented athletes. We never took athletes to international competitions without the knowledge of their parents and teachers,” he said.