Botswana has set itself a 33 medal target at the upcoming Supreme Council of Sports in Africa (SCSA) Zone 6 Under 20 Games billed for Swaziland next week.
Botswana will be sending 164 athletes to the games. They will be accompanied by 40 officials, among them 8 coaches.
Botswana will be sending both men and ladies teams in football, athletics, visually impaired athletics, basketball, tennis and swimming, as well as boys’ boxing team and ladies netball team.
The team, which will have Tebogo Ntesang as its chef de mission, is expected to leave the country on Thursday next week and will be expected back in the country on the 19th of this month.
Speaking in an interview with Standard Sport, the Botswana National Sports Council Marketing Officer, Modiri Ontitile, said preparations are still ongoing to fine tune the team ahead of the games.
Ontitile says despite some of the athletes due to take part in the games reporting late for camp, all sporting codes going to the games are ready. “This has been largely due to the fact that most of these athletes are still at school and some of them are either doing Form Three or Form Five and were writing their final examinations,” Ontitile said.
He further added that most of the athletes going to the games were selected at last year’s Botswana games.
Concerning the visually impaired athletes, Ontitile says the athletes were chosen at last year’s Paralympic Association of Botswana (PASSOBO) games.
Commenting on the medal target for the games, Ontitile says every code taking part at the games has set itself a medal target.
Athletics has pledged the biggest number of medals at 18, followed by both the visually impaired athletics and boxing at five apiece.
The games, which are used as a platform to develop Africa’s young talent, are the brainchild of the Supreme Council of Sports in Africa (SCSA), which is also in charge of the All Africa Games.
The games have been divided according to zones with Botswana in the 10-member Zone 6, which is comprises of Southern African countries.
