GABORONE 2018:ITS MY TIME MY TURN
BY:Letsile Matlhodi
GABORONE:An opening ceremony for the AUSC region 5 games was held this afternoon at the Botswana national stadium to officially open welcome the participants as they will be head to head for the next eleven days.
It is the 8th edition of the games to be held and Botswana was lucky enough to have been the host of this year`s edition after the 7th edition which was held in Angola.
The games includes 7 sporting codes like basketball, tennis, volleyball, swimming, football, judo and lastly netball. The athletes are from ten member states of the region.
Botswana hosted the 8th edition and to bless the ceremony and officially welcome the athletes was the minister of youth empowerment sports and culture Honorable Thapelo Olopeng who expressed gratitude for having been available at an exciting time of the games.
Olopeng encouraged the athletes to out-stand and rise the flag of their respective countries as all the sporting codes are qualifiers to the 2019 African championships.
” I want to take this opportunity to to encourage young athletes here today to outperform themselves in their sporting codes as all the codes are qualifiers to the African championships and in future we will be striving to make the region 5 games qualifiers of the African championships “,said Olopeng.
Also giving the speech was the Regional Organizing Commitee(ROC) chairperson who acknowledged the government of Botswana for ensuring that a good organising team has been selected to handle the games and unearthing the talents of fellow Africans.
For his part when officially opening the games His Excellency Mokgwetsi Masisi cited that games promote good cultural bond across the region.
“the games are important for the development of sports and it’s image and dignifies the value of friendship and unity of southern region team”,explained president Masisi.”Gaborone 2018 region is your place,time and your turn to up the game and be the flag bearers of the region “. These were the closing remarks by president Mokgwetsi Masisi encouraging the athletes to perform at their level best and highly raise the flag of their respective nations.
Many of the activities of the day as the curtain raisers for the next 11 days fun filled with talent nd passion include amongst others the athletes oath, coaches oath, officials oath, raising the games flag and lighting the games flame.
