The BAA has set aside P26, 700 as prize money to inspire athletes to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics. The National Championships run from today until Sunday at the National Stadium and a strong local and international line-up will compete. With the July Olympics on the horizon, BAA hopes more athletes will qualify.
The BAA vice president-technical, Oabona Theetso, said the prize money will apply in three categories; senior, junior, and youth, with athletes placed between positions one and eight benefiting. “The objective of this competition is that they serve as qualifiers to many competitions including the Olympics, Africa Championships and World Junior Championships. So anyone who qualifies for any of these competitions will get P5, 000,” Theetso said. To further motivate local athletes to pull off qualifying times over the weekend, Theetso said they have international athletes to ensure stiff competition. “We have invited South Africa and Namibia to the championship particularly those who are coached by Samuel Sepeng who include 800m runner, Ketlhobogile Hanguira and Tshepiso Masalela who both qualified for the Olympics,” he said.
Olympic Games silver medallist, Christine Mboma headlines the list of athletes from Namibia. “We will also have a team of 25 athletes from Namibia made up of 13 women and 12 men. Mboma is part of them and we have all seen what she is capable of doing because we have seen her on our home soil,” Theetso said. Botswana will field 24 athletes in the senior side in both genders while for juniors and youth, there are 16 athletes respectively. The BAA said more than 800 athletes have registered for both track and field events. BAA remains the only sport code that still has local Olympic qualifying events.
“Currently, we are the best-performing sport code as no other code has athletes that have qualified for the Olympics. The only downfall is that we do not have females on the list,” he said. Letsile Tebogo, Bayapo Ndori, Leungo Scotch, and Collen Kebinatshipi are amongst the local athletes who have qualified. Women’s 100m and 200m defending champion, Tsaone Sebele said as females, they head into the weekend championships with one thing in mind, which is to qualify. “Coming into the weekend, our athletes will bring their A-game. We are ready to see national records being broken and see new people qualify for the Olympics and other world competitions,” she said. Tickets cost P20 for entry per day.
Prize money breakdown
Seniors Juniors. Youth 1 P5, 000 P2, 500 P1, 000 2 P3, 000 P1, 500 P900 3 P2, 000 P1,000 P800 4 P1, 000 P700 P700 5 P900 P600 P600 6 P800 P500 P500 7 P700 P400 P400 8 P600 P300 P300
