On Thursday, Debswana announced it would be funding the Botswana athletics junior national team to compete at the junior World Championships in Lima, Peru. The team, left the country for Peru this past Friday, August 23, 2024. The sponsorship by Debswana was a timely answer to Botswana Athletics Association (BAA)’s distressed cry for help.
It came at a time when the Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) had turned down BAA’s request for funds. This refusal, allegedly due to financial constraints, rubbed the BAA the wrong way.
Speaking on the sidelines of the celebrations of team Botswana’s success at the Paris 2024 Olympics, BAA vice president administration Oabona Theetso expressed the association’s frustrations with BNOC.
“My heart is heavy. We have a team going to Lima, Peru. The competition starts on the 27th going to the 31st of this month. But as we speak, BNOC still has not done anything. We wrote to them asking for aid in transporting the team. Our request was denied.”
“But look, they are here celebrating. Even in 2028 they will be celebrating. Let us not celebrate results when we see them, not knowing what it took to prepare to try to enable athletes to achieve them,” the BAA vice president administration said.
He said it is disheartening that when it comes to preparing future teams for the upcoming Olympics, the BNOC leaves everything is left to the BAA. He said the BNOC should not wait until the last months to help future Olympians.
Theetso outlined that competitions such as the junior world championships are where future Olympians are groomed. He made examples of Letsile Tebogo and Anthony Pesela, who in 2021 were part of team Botswana at the world junior championships and are now Olympic medalists.
According to Theetso, with the Paris 2024 Olympics now done, the focus now is Los Angeles 2028 Olympics (LA28) and preparations have to start as early as now.
“You prepare for four years. You cannot wait for three and half years to pass and then that is when you start offering aid. What was being done in all of that 3 and a half years to prepare for the competitions without monetary support and resources? Let’s start now!” he implored.
What hurts Theetso the most is that BNOC is aware that athletics will always be picked to compete and bring results. “It does not occur to them that they should prepare the athletes early, groom and condition them well in time for this but they will expect results,” he decried.
While not happy with BNOC, the BAA vice president administration expressed gratitude to Debswana, who he says ‘have helped us a lot.’ Aside from giving the BAA a three-year sponsorship worth P3 million a year, the mining giant has also not held back from giving incentives.
This has now extended to sponsoring the country’s athletics junior national team to compete at the world junior championships. Debswana, along with the De Beers Global Sightholder Sales sponsored the youth athletics team with P533 900, to go along with the P600 000 withdrawn from its existing sponsorship with BAA.
Meanwhile, BNOC Business Development Officer Baboni Kupe confirmed that the commission received a request for funding from BAA. She however says the BNOC could not help due to financial constraints.
According to Kupe, the commission did not have enough finances as it had spent most of its available funds to prepare the team that represented Botswana at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
