UB honors Makwala
The University of Botswana (UB) has had an epic contribution in the making of Botswana’s sprint sensation, Isaac Makwala.
As the curtain draws on his illustrious career, UB will be honouring the legendary athlete in the upcoming Inaugural Annual Marathon on November 27.
Speaking in an interview this week, sport psychology lecturer at the institution, Dr Tshepang Tshube said UB contributed a great deal to the making of a star in Makwala.
He said that the University have over the years provided Makwala with the best sport facilities available in the country as well as the best coaches available.
“If you look into it the University has provided Makwala with world class facilities and capable coaches such as Justice Dipebe, who has contributed immensely to the making of Makwala in the past 10 years,” he said.
He added that Makwala is a global icon who has done much to raise the country’s flag on the international stage, and the university associates with excellence.
Moreover, he said the University has offered the 4x4 relay team scholarships after their bronze medal win at the 2020 Olympic Games which were held in 2021 in Tokyo Japan.
Makwala has since shown interest in studying coaching in the department of Sports Science at the University, so he will be a student in the near future according to Dr Tshube.
Tshube said through the marathon they have reached out to the Botswana National Sports Council (BNSC) and the Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) as stakeholders in honouring Makwala. “We hope these stakeholders will do something similar to what we are doing in their own right.”
He thus noted that athletes deserve proper sending off once their illustrious careers reach the end. “Makwala will partake in the 10km race and will later on run his last 400m race with the fans cheering at the University of Botswana.”
At the peak of his career, Makwala won two gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in the 400m and in the 4x4 relay and 3 gold medals at the African Championships.
His personal best time of 43.72, set 5 July 2015 in La Chaux-de-Fonds was an African continental record and ranks him number 8 on the all-time list, the second fastest non-American. He is also a sub-20 200 metres runner.
On July 14, 2017, Isaac Makwala became the first man in history to run a 200 m within 20 seconds and a 400 m within 44 seconds on the same day by running 43.92 in the 400, then 19.77 in the 200m, 2 hours and 20 minutes later at the Meeting de Atletismo Madrid.
Like that is not enough he finished his career with the most sought after Olympic medal when him and his teammates in the 4x4 relay team settled for bronze medal at the 2020 Olympic games.