Friday, February 14, 2025

Nijel Amos will come round ÔÇô BAA

The Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) is pressing no panic buttons over the future of the country’s 800 meters men track star Nijel Amos.

This follows the latest gossip that the youngster, who has been hogging the headlines for his alleged off-track antics since winning the Olympic silver medal, may be losing focus.

Amos, who is regarded as the country’s best male runner, has been in the news lately for his off track field life, more especially his part time DJying job, which though not discussed at the OGM was a topic in the terraces.

Just barely two weeks after being at the centre of a heated argument between his club, Orapa Athletics Club and the BAA executive during the BAA’s recent Ordinary General Meeting, the youngster is said to have been involved in a road mishap this past week.

During the fiery OGM, the Orapa club accused the BAA of not ‘communicating well with them regarding the star athlete’s welfare, his injuries as well as his whereabouts.’

Concerning the latest incident, the BAA Public Relations Officer (PRO), Ipolokeng Ramatshaba, said the athlete escaped with minor injuries during the accident which is said to have occurred at around 3 am on Friday morning. It is not certain whether the youngster, who is doubling as a part time Disc Jockey (DJ), was coming from some of his performances when the accident occurred.

Quizzed on whether the athlete’s focus on the athletics track would not be hampered, the BAA PRO said there is currently no need to worry.

“I think he (Amos) has made it clear that this is just a part time job and he is as committed as ever to athletics. As you may know, he is on off season and he being a DJ does not interfere with his sporting life. After all, even Usain Bolt is an artist and DJ in his spare time, so there is nothing wrong with him doing as such,” Ramatshaba explained.

Quizzed on the purpose of the meeting that the BAA is said to be planning to have with the youngster in the coming week, the BAA PRO said there ‘will be no discussions about his (Amos) DJying job.’

“What we are keen to discuss with him is how he is feeling after his accident and to see how far the injury that he had incurred prior to the World Athletics’ Championships is healing. We want to see if he will be ready to return back to training when the off season ends,” Ramatshaba explained.

The BAA PRO said the expectation is that once the off season comes to a close, Amos will go back to the training at the High Performance Centre in South Africa where he is on an International Olympic Committee (IOC) scholarship. Ramatshaba’s sentiments were echoed by BAA Executive Committee member Kenneth Kikwe who said Amos was still focused on athletics.

Kikwe, who is based in Orapa and is the Orapa based club’s former Chairperson said as far as he is concerned, there is nothing to worry about regarding the star athlete.

While the BAA says there will not be much to be discussed during their meeting with the star athlete, the meeting is expected to be closely watched by other stakeholders who are keen to know what is happening to the star athlete.

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