The Botswana wrestling team that took part in the regional Wrestling Development Tournament dubbed Intuthuko recently held in Pretoria, South Africa has brought home a total of nine medals.
The tournament, organised by South African Wrestling Federation in partnership with United World Wrestling had brought together teams from Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Cuba and Ecuador.
The wrestlers competed in different wrestling styles including Olympic wrestling styles (Free style, Graeco-Roman and Women wrestling) and Beach wrestling.
Four wrestler in Percy Pheya, Laone Mpoi, Phatsimo Sabone and Bangu Kemelano represented Botswana at the event. Pheya, won one gold medal in Beach wrestling, one silver medal in Olympic wrestling (Greco-Roman styles) and one bronze medal in Olympic wrestling (Free style).
Mpoi walked away with two silver medals in Olympic wrestling and one silver medal in Beach wrestling. Sabone won one silver medal in Olympic wrestling and one silver in Beach Wrestling while Kemelano won one silver medal in Beach wrestling.
In an interview, team Botswana wrestling Coach Dr Moagi Sharp said that they started preparations for the event three months back and their preparations went well even though they had some financial constraints.
‘‘My team performed very well indeed, all of them got medals, in Olympic wrestling we secured five medals and in beach wrestling we secured four medals a total of nine medals (one gold medal, seven silver medals, and one bronze medal),’’he said.
Sharp has however lamented that logistics of travel to the competition was a challenge due to insufficient funds. He expressed that they were assisted with three flight tickets by United World Wrestling and they managed to raise funds to take other additional three wrestlers who travelled by bus to South Africa to compete.
Sharp has also told Times Sport that during the tournament he attended Level 3 Olympic Wrestling Coaching Course and managed to pass his theory and practical which certified him as a Level 3 Olympic Wrestling Coach. He noted that being a Level 3 Coach will help sport of wrestling to grow in Botswana because he will be able to train quality coaches and the level of wrestling will also grow.
