Botswana sends 34 athletes to University Games

The University of Botswana has sent 34 sport athletes to participate in the eighth Federation of Africa University Sports (FASU) games to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The games started on 26th June at the University of Johannesburg and will run throughout the entire week. The team is expected back home on Sunday. Speaking at a press conference, a day before the departure, Acting Director of Culture, Sports and Recreation, Raj Reuben Rathedi said the University will be represented by six different sport codes - Athletics, Tennis, Table tennis, Badminton, Chess and the Volleyball teams.

“It was within our interest to send more codes but FASU decides which codes are to participate and also due to financial constraints we found it hard to send more team sports as compared to individual sport codes,” he stated. Although conceding that Africa has so many Universities some of which hold first class athletes, he expressed “absolute confidence” in the team and hoped they will return home victorious.

Rathedi said they have taken all the necessary precautions to ensure that the safety and well-being of the athletes is top notch. He expressed gratitude to the University management for the role they are playing in sport development and revealed that they are currently working around the clock to find international sport scholarships for their athletes. Athletes, he said, should not solely rely on sports to move mountains, but should excel both academically and in sports.