On Wednesday, the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) announced Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) as the Best African Federation for the year 2025.
In what should have rightfully been Botswana’s crowning moment, CAA also announced rising star Collen Kebinatshipi as the best male athlete of the year, while Chilume Chippa Ntshwarang was crowned Coach of the Year.
The recognition comes in the wake of Botswana’s showing at the Tokyo 25 World Athletics Championships, where the country finished joint 5th from the 198 countries which were participating. Botswana also finished second among African countries at the championships, just behind Kenya, who finished first among African counties and second overall.
Earlier in the year, in May, Botswana finished in seventh (7th) position at the Guangzhou 25 World Athletics Championships. This also placed the country second in Africa behind South Africa, who finished in first position both in the world and in the continent.
The recognition from CAA has been described as welcome news by the association. “We welcome the announcement. It shows growth in our athletes, our coaches as well as the association,” BAA acting president Oabona Theetso says.
He says considering the number of athletes, coaches and associations who are doing well in the continent, the recognition shows something is being done right. Theetso says being mentioned alongside countries like South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania, who have as many star athletes and coaches, is something to be proud of.
“I believe BAA has over the years demonstrated that we have what it takes to compete against the best in the world. We have continuously done well as a country over many years now, winning medals at Olympic and world championships level.”
On the way forward for the BAA, Theetso says the association cannot and should not drop the ball. Rather, he believes the recognition should serve as motivation for the association and local athletes to achieve even more success in the coming years.
Of concern however is the fact that the CAA recognition comes in the backdrop of the announcement that that the country has recorded two more fresh doping violations.
Addressing the issue of increasing doping violations, Theetso cautioned that this may ‘dirty the waters’ for local athletes, many of who compete clean. “It is painful that our country’s name will be sullied by a few athletes who I would like to describe as self-centred.”
“These actions may end up costing athletes who are competing clean and bringing glory for this country. Imagine if tomorrow we are told that Letsile Tebogo, Kebinatshipi or the 4x400m relay cannot compete because of the actions of athletes who want to cheat. That will be sad.”
“What we see now are athletes seeking to be on the national team or winning by hook or crook. That is unacceptable. Athletes should know better. The only positive thing from all this is that none of the athletes who tested positive in the past three years have won medals in the said period.”
Despite this, the BAA acting president says investigations on the spiralling doping cases are ongoing. “We are investigating all the athletes implicated, as well as those close to them. We want to find all the people involved, it be athletes, coaches or even members of their teams. We also want to know the suppliers of these banned substances. Once investigations are complete, we will crack the whip on all those involved.”
Meanwhile, Theetso has commended the country’s National Anti-Doping Coordinating Office (NADCO) for the good work it is doing. He says ‘it is a good thing’ that most of the athletes who have used banned substances were caught by NADCO.
“This shows that our NADCO is working. It is embarrassing for our country when athletes are caught doping. And it would be even more embarrassing if they were caught outside the country on international competitions.”
“If NADCO was not working, may be some of these athletes would have embarrassed us outside the country. Nowadays, testing has been intensified in international competitions and no athletes can escape the scrutiny. So, it is a good thing that our athletes are tested here before they go out there,” he says.
