Botswana's 400m reign ends
Calistus Kolantsho | Friday August 9, 2024 09:33
At the ongoing Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Colossae, Stade de France, this brilliance dulled but had not gone unnoticed since the Athens Olympic Games in 2004, in both the women's and men's categories. This 20-year success came to a screeching halt when Bayapo Ndori, Collen Kebinatshipi, and Leungo Scotch ended their Olympics journey in the semi-finals. Ndori finished in position four with a time of 44.43s. Scotch who qualified for the semi-final through the repechage round finished in position seven in 45.16s. Kebinatshipi improved his personal best (PB) from 44.31s to 44.43s during the semi-final.
Speaking to MmegiSport, former Associate Professor at the University of Botswana, Professor Tshepang Tshube said for the first time, Botswana has not reached the Olympics finals in 400m in both men and women since Athens 2004. He said that it is important to reflect on why. “This is a 20-year gap of success we have maintained, but we fell short today,” he noted. Tshube said the 400m athletes' failure to reach the Olympic Games final can be interpreted in two ways. “One, as a failure and undermining their chances of winning a medal in the relay. Clearly, some athletes including Ndori and Scotch should have reached the final.
This can be interpreted as an under-performance. This is likely to affect their performance in the relay,” he said. Tshube said the second interpretation could be that they rest and focus fully on the relay. He noted that at least four athletes in the relay had run under 45 seconds and were strong enough to make the podium finish adding that they needed to recover mentally. When asked if the failure could be due to fatigue, Tshube said athletes had too many Diamond League races before the Olympics, especially Ndori. “The Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) and the Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) need to work with the Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) to manage Diamond League races in an Olympic year.
Secondly, the incentives from Choppies Botswana that were announced a few days before the Olympics are a clear psychological distraction to the athletes,” he said. Tshube said athletes spend a lot of time processing the incentives and not focusing on the games. “This should have been announced way before the games. The incentives exclude coaches, which undermines their role in the team. There is a lot of power play between athletes and coaches, and the incentive downplays the role of the coach,” Tshube said. He pointed out that the BNOC should have discussed the issue with Choppies and demonstrated the value coaches bring to the team and how their exclusion undermines task and social cohesion in the team.
For his part veteran one-lap runner, Isaac Makwala, said the Olympics were tough, especially for Ndori and Scotch. “I think they picked form early; I think they did their PBs in May. Kebinatshipi had a good competition because he picked form at the right time, which is why he clocked two PBs. The competition was also tough because for them to qualify for the final, they needed to drop fast sub 44.01s,” Makwala said.