BOTESSA EXPERIENCE A MINOR HICKUP

BY:Kabelo Seleka

GABORONE:Botswana Tertiary Education Student Sports Association(BOTESSA ) Bracket B championship qualifiers has this past weekend experienced disarray of uncoordinated officiating around the region hosted at UB,BUAN,BNYC and BIAC.

The games which was used as qualifiers for the optimistically anticipated BOTESSA Championship to be held in Gaborone next month nonetheless managed to successfully make a cut for teams and athletes to represent the bracket through the spirit of compromise.

The dual qualification series of outdoor and indoor sports at once resulted in some other technicalities not followed by the bracket especially for the inhouse codes.

In BIAC grounds where Limkokwing ladies soccer team were supposedly to play UB ladies at 08:00 hours in the final before the game was rescheduled from 10:00hours,the two teams were told that the ground is in use not for their games,only to play at a later stage.

At BNYC for table tennis,the coordinator unprecedentedly and mistakenly used team events for qualification instead of individual qualifiers which was time consuming and resulted in shortage of medals.

BUAN where Badminton was staged received no medals,including in UB where softball teams never got one.

When reached for a comment,BOTESSA Bracket B Chairperson Galefele Bigman narrated that this is all a learning curve.Bigman further alluded that they had to compromise due to insufficient officials.He also lamented that they need to have the association accreditated officials for smooth operation of the competion but acknowledged the progress they have made in other major sporting codes.

“We still have a challenge in officials because of shortage of funds that can pay them, so we plead with volunteers to compromise for the progress of the games,we are at a level that we need guidance from experts in officiating,at the end of the day it is an ideal to push with association accreditated referees,said Bigman.”

BOTESSA Bracket B official Patrick Moeti stressed that the shortage of medals will be taken care of before the end of this week.Moeti said they wrote a letter to the motherbody requesting for more medal.He further noted that as a committee they have learned a lot going forward.

“We have written letter to Botessa for more medals I am not promising this week but next week athletes will receive thier medals,alluded Moeti.”

For his part,BOTESSA mouthpiece Duncan Segabo acknowledged growth in all aspect of the hosting but recommended that outdoor competition and indoors should be held separately as they will do for upcoming national championship.

“Its important to host these games on different dates for proper attention and respect they deserve,concluded Segabo.”

Meanwhile Bracket A will be having its championship qualification on the fifth and sixth of September at Serowe College of Education.

BOTESSA indoor championship is to be held on 19th-20th of October while outdoor sports is staged for November 2nd and 3rd.