Despite three of their teams having to be dropped from the Confederation of Universities and Colleges Sports Association (CUCSA) owing to financial constraints, team Botswana remained undaunted as they put up great performance at the games, scooping 2nd position and bringing home 25 medals.
Team Botswana won eight gold medals, seven silver medals and 10 bronze medals under Athletics, Netball, Football, Volleyball and Tennis while the Chess and Basketball men’s team did not perform well. A total of 74 Batswana students from 20 tertiary institutions participated at the games.
The selections were held in the Northern region and another one in the Southern region that was followed by the final selections for both athletics, indoor and outdoor games that were held in Gaborone and Serowe respectively.
Prior the games, Botswana Tertiary Student Sports Association (BOTESSA) dropped the men’s volleyball, women’s soccer and basketball teams from participating at the competition that commenced on the 29th August to 03 September citing that Covid-19 had a negative impact on their budget, hence the decision.
BOTESSA Vice Secretary General, Botho Thobega has commended the team for the victory indicating that in the previous competitions which were held in Botswana in 2018 they took position three while this time around they have elevated to position two. He added that team South Africa which took position one was just ahead of them by only three gold medals.
Thobega has revealed that the teams/athletes that did well at the games may stand a chance to be selected in the National teams and the International University Sports Federation (FISU) games that will held in Chengdu, China between 28 July and 8 August next year.
“Though we had a very good performance, we also experienced some challenges such as fatigues and injuries,” she told Times Sport.
For his part, CUCSA President Mwape Nshimbi commended that over the years they had very good games in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. He noted that though they came from the period of Covid-19 it was amazing to see the high number of students participating at the games while at the same time showing a great potential. He said they are looking forward for the good games in the next host countries.
The CUCSA games were held from the 29 August to the 03 September in Lilongwe, Malawi and the six countries that participated included Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Angola.
