- Team Botswana fails to bring home medals from Oregon
Botswana’s 400m sensation who has the Africa Olympic and commonwealth medals under his belt has bowed out of the track, with his last attempt for a medal at the just ended world athletics championships in Oregon, USA.
In an interview after the Championships where, team Botswana failed to bring home a medal Makwala explained that he did all the best but it was not enough to take him to the finals.
“Failure is part of the game and I am really proud of myself. It has been a long journey, from the year 2006 -2022,” he said.
He stated that he had wanted to qualify for the semi-finals, and that as it may be, it takes pride for the part he has played in national and world athletics throughout his career.
“I am very proud to have represented Botswana for 15 years, I am still even on top of the world so I am really happy about it, the rising talent in Botswana is also good in 400m and the young guys are coming well, I think we are raising good stars in Botswana,” said Makwala.
Team Botswana at the championships consisted of nine athletes: Anthony Pesela – 400m and 4×400 relay, Bayapo Ndori – 400m and 4×400 relay, Leungo Scotch 4×400 relay, Zibane Ngozi 4×400 relay, Thalosang Tshireletso- long jump, Maitseo Keitumetse- 4x400m relay, Letsile Tebogo 100m and Isaac Makwala 200m, 400m and 4x400m relay. Nijel Amos was also part of the team but did not compete after testing positive for a banned substance metabolite.
Anthony Pesela failed to proceed to the semi-finals, while Letsile Tebogo bowed out of the Championships in position 7 of his semi-final heat. Isaac Makwala earned himself a spot in the semi -finals in his heat but the veteran athlete unfortunately did not proceed to the finals after finishing last in his heat with a time of 46.04.
Bayapo Ndori on the other hand reached the finals but came 6th with a time of 45.29.Though Ndori finished on the 6th position of the finals, the debutant in the world championship stage showed an impressive performance during the heats when he lead his heat to register a personal best of time of 44.87, which was the fastest time amongst all men’s 400m.
The Maun BDF Athlete, said he was impressed with his performance since it was his first appearance at the world athletics championships.
“It was not easy to go through in the competition, it was a tough but a learning experience because I had an opportunity to share the tracks with the world record holder, Wayde van Niekerk and Kirani James,” he appreciated.
The other hope for Batswana was the 4×400 m men relay team to build on the success, however the team clocked a time of 3.00.14, finishing in position 6 from the relay finals. The team comprised Zibani Ngozi, Leungo Scotch, Isaac Makwala and Bayapo Ndori. The team’s qualification to the finals followed a reinstatement by the track referees after picking the infringement from their counterparts.
