Coach accuses BNOC, PASSOBO of failing Mabote
Calistus Kolantsho | Thursday September 22, 2016 14:40
The two organisations faced the wrath of coach Raj Rathedi as he put it in Setswana saying ‘ngwana wa batho o ne a latheletswe.’ Rathedi was speaking at a press conference held at the BNOC conference room to welcome the 400m T12 runner, Keatlaretse Mabote yesterday. Mabote finished in the third place. “You do not prepare during the competition, but in advance. I had only five months to prepare the athlete for the Paralympics games. I had expected that Mabote would get the same training that was offered to the Olympics team,” said the disappointed coach.
Rathedi said he started off by assessing the athlete and he realised that he had not been training. He revealed that they only had one training camp in South Africa and after that, things fell apart. He said there was no support from anybody and it was a frustrating situation for him and the athlete. He said that meant he had to adjust the training programme many times.
Rathedi revealed that Mabote was training without spikes (running shoes). “We had to re-adjust the programme again with two weeks to go before the games. We decided to forget about winning a medal, but just focused on bringing home a personal best record. It was frustrating to me to motivate Mabote in those conditions,” he said. Rathedi said the initial target was to run 49:00 and in July they had to change it to 50:00. The target was again pushed to 51:00. Rathedi said the athlete was finally supplied with spikes and that the running shoes are used for middle distance. He said they left for Rio without spikes only for them to arrive late and could not use them because they were not the correct size.
Responding to the coach, BNOC chief executive officer, Tuelo Serufho said Mabote had training attire. He said the attire was purchased in March. “Mabote was issued with Adidas spikes. I wish to confirm to you that we did not treat Mabote differently from the Olympics team. The team also received their spikes in Rio because that was an arrangement they had with the sponsor,” said Serufho.