AUSC Games decry poor attendance

Botswana fifth on medal table

LETLHOGILE MPUANG

General Manager of the ongoing Gaborone Region 5 games Steven Bothasitse has suggested that Team Botswana’s struggles at the ongoing games is a result of lack of support from members of the public.

The games  kicked off last week in Gaborone, with  a total of  eleven  (11) countries ; Angola, Botswana Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe and guest nation in Tanzania. The main aim of the games is to use sports to achieve peace, integration and unity in Africa i.e. sport as a vehicle of encouraging people to develop and come together, irrespective of colour, economic status, political, class, or gender. The games are played by athletes under the age of 20 years across more than five sporting codes such as football, athletics, swimming, boxing and netball just to name a few

When briefing  members of the media yesterday (Monday) in Gaborone, AUSC Region 5 Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Stanley Mutoya said despite the heavy weekend rains, which saw some games being called out,they were more than satisfied with the progress of the games so far.

He also went on to reveal that a total of 86 medals had been issued at end of Day 4 of the games. South Africa and Angola currently being the two early pacesetters with total of 52 medals between the two countries. The host nation, Botswana are ranked fifth (5th) in the medal table.

Speaking to the this publication on the sidelines of the ongoing games, Bothasitse expressed concerns over Batswana’s little appetite for the games, and believes it is one of the key reasons to the team’s not so impressive showing this far.

“As you are aware, Botswana is sitting at number 5, and I believe they will get themselves together and push harder. Cause remember as a host  nation, we are expecting them to be either number 1 or number 2, but that can only happen if Batswana do come out here and support the team, remember we need that twelveth player,” Bothasitse told Gazette Sport.

“We are appealing to Batswana to come and support this team. These are youth games , and obviously there is no way you just expect to know players, when you have never seen them at an early age.  So they ought to come and support the team, remember this is where the likes of Nigel Amos, Naomi Ruele and other great stars  were discovered,” briefly said the Region 5 GM.