Africa Welcome
Source : KUTLWANO
Author : Thelma Khunwane
Location : GABORONE
Event : Gaborone 2014 Africa Youth Games
AFRICA WELCOME
GABORONE - The 2nd African Youth Games, dubbed Gaborone 2014, are finally here. May 22 is kick-off.
KUTLWANO`s Thelma Khunwane takes a peek into the first ever biggest continental competition Botswana has ever hosted to trace the games genesis to the point where they now start.
When it was announced that Botswana would host the event, many must have dismissed it as just fantasy. None of them were convinced that Botswana could host a competition of such magnitude.
The games, which bring together athletes in the 14 to 18 year age range, will see 2 500 athletes from 54 African countries competing in 21 sporting events hosted in 15 competition venues.
The venues are University of Botswana stadium, Otse Police College, Botho University Multipurpose hall, Gaborone Dam, Sir Seretse Khama Barracks, Molepolole Sports Complex, National Stadium, Gaborone Golf Club, Boipuso hall, Botswana Netball Association (BONA) courts, National Youth Centre, Ditshupo hall, National Tennis Centre and Molepolole Institute of Health Sciences (IHS).
The University of Botswana will be the games village for athletes and some officials. All the 54 African countries have committed to competing at the games.
Team Botswana will field over 190 athletes in all the 21 sporting events. They include athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, canoeing, cycling, fencing, football, golf, judo, karate, netball, rowing, rugby, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, volleyball and weightlifting.
Botswana African Youth Games Organising Committee (BAYGOC) chief executive officer, Tuelo Serufho, narrates where and how it all started.
The first step was to prepare a motivation for the Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) to consider approaching government for the country to bid games.
BNOC did not have any qualms approving the proposal which meant government just had to rubber stamp.
An Expression of Interest was then submitted to the games` owners, the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA), followed by compilation and submission of a candidature file or bid book as it is commonly known.
“It should be noted that in compiling the bid book, quite a few stakeholders were engaged for their buy in. These included the University of Botswana, Botswana Police Service, Princess Marina Hospital,” explains Serufho.
The bid was presented at a meeting attended by about 120 sports ministers and guests from across the world who converged on Moscow, Russia for the World Olympic Sport Convention. What followed were ANOCA`s Coordination Commission readiness inspection visits.
MOTIVATION
Incidentally, one would ask what really motivated BNOC to bid for the games. Serufho says the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture as the mother body of “sports and youth” in Botswana took interest in the games as an opportunity to carve out and build Botswana as a sporting nation as well as inspire the youth.
Most importantly, Serufho reckons that the overarching motivation to bid for the games was to put Botswana on the spotlight so that the world understands the country better and ultimately exploit its potential.
He adds that many a times, people in Europe mistake Botswana as part of South Africa. Then again, he says even among those who are aware of the fact that Botswana is not a part of South Africa, there is a lot who still have a limited knowledge about the country.
Generally, he explains, people in the broader continent and the world know Botswana for its diamonds, tourism, and HIV/AIDS, with the latter often completely misunderstood.
Because of the limited knowledge, Serufho says Botswana misses out on potential investors, tourists, international students and other groups that could potentially have interest in the country.
“Hosting a major international event, therefore, proved a natural solution to ensuring that Botswana is known, as sport appeals to people and would likely attract millions of television viewers in and outside of the country,” reckons an upbeat Serufho.
Not only that. Serufho also believes the decision to bid for the games was helped by the fact that in the 17 years leading to date, government has invested a lot of money in building sport infrastructure.
Therefore, Botswana is ready to host games at this level without the need to build anything new, a development Serufho says will mean lesser money required than would normally be the case.
“Of course the other motivation was the fact that games are normally a stimulant to the economy and the ones in Botswana would not be an exception.”
Further, Serufho says their confidence was borne out of, amongst other things, the fact that Botswana already had international standard sport infrastructure in place; that while Botswana has never hosted anything at this level, the country once hosted some single sport continental competitions such as the Football Under 17 in 1997, two editions of the African Junior Tennis Championships in the mid/late 2000s and African Championships in Athletics in 2011, amongst others.
TIME TO SHINE
Also, the number of athletes at the Botswana Games is comparable with those of the African Youth Games. “Therefore, with three editions of the Botswana Games behind us, we have experience dealing with such numbers,” points out a confident Serufho.
To him, that is not all. That is because he says there is a large number of Batswana who either have training in sport management or exposure to big international events hence this will be their chance to get the much needed exposure in their respective fields.
“There are issues of skills share and development so our locals will gain exposure from all the experts coming into the country to partner with them in delivering the games.”
CHALLENGES
However, the country has been faced with challenges in hosting sporting games. Among such is finance. One may wonder as to how the organisers planned to raise funds, let alone the confidence to be able to reach the target on time.
To that, Serufho is happy to reveal that ANOCA as the games rights owners, made a substantive donation to kick start preparations for the games.
Again, he adds that government also made a contribution - over and above availing other material resources to the secretariat.
“We have since gone on a robust resource mobilisation drive engaging the body corporate, private, parastatal companies and individuals to make donations, to come in at different capacities as official partners, sponsors,” he says.
However, Serufho says monetary or other resources for a project of this size can never be enough.
“We are still appealing to all and sundry to make commitments so ensure delivery of the best, a legacy for our nation.”
Notwithstanding, the games budget totaled P75 million and Serufho says with Botswana government and ANOCA having given them a cumulative figure of nearly P50 million, they had to raise just over P25 million.
“We have made significant strides but have yet to hit the mark, hence we continue to appeal for more support. We must of course hasten to state that we have received a lot of value in kind, which will go a long way in ensuring the quality of our games.”
WE ARE READY
In kick starting preparations, a BAYGOC was put in place and Serufho is happy with the team working on making sure that Botswana is ready come May 22. Under given circumstances, he says the secretariat has made commendable strides to bring these games.
“We continue to get capacity support from various stakeholders in the form of the Sport Volunteer Movement (SVM) and the Botswana National Sports Council (BNSC). Some of our partners continue to avail their personnel on secondment to offer the much needed skills set, among them Botswana Defence Force, BOMAID and Ministry of Health. Over and above, the team is very committed and driven,” he says.
Most importantly, he says when the rest of Africa arrives, Botswana will be more than ready to receive them and give them a spectacle unparalleled though challenges abound.
Team Botswana Organising Committee and Local Organising Committees for each sport were also put in place to ready their respective athletes for the games.
Preparations, says Serufho, are well on course and he is adamant that they will have all competition venues well on time and equipment delivered on time.
However, he says their main challenge has of course been the fact that unlike other countries that normally get between four to seven years to prepare for such games, Botswana only had 14 months. That on its own, reckons Serufho, meant raising funds became even harder - a lot of things had to be fast tracked and some stakeholders not adequately consulted in the process. “We of course put our best foot forward in all the challenging situations.”
Regarding facilities, Serufho says “interestingly they are of international standard. We have had groups of people from outside giving us feedback on the standard of facilities we will be using for the games and all the reviews have been highly positive”.
He adds, “what I have come to understand is that as Batswana, we tend to be too hard on ourselves. It takes quite a lot for us to see the good that other people see in us, and our evaluation of our sport facilities has not been an exception.”
On Botswana sending a strong team to the games and its chances of doing well, Serufho says; “not being anywhere near Team Botswana, I nevertheless suppose they wouldn`t want to let Batswana down. It is known that host countries always go and out-do themselves for the pride of the nation. With the support of Batswana and the experience from participating at national, regional and continental levels, I trust athletes are more than ready for the moment they have been readying for.”
Organisationally, Serufho does not doubt Botswana will host a successful event. That, he says is solely because the organising committee, staff and partners are all working hard to ensure that this will be a resounding success. “This is the best opportunity Botswana has had to date and we are not going to let it go to waste.”
THE WINDFALL
What benefits will Botswana derive from hosting the games? Serufho says “I have since talked of infrastructural developments that wouldn`t have been realised in the short space of time hadn`t the games been awarded to Botswana. All our 15 games host sites will be connected to Wi-Fi, which will remain for continual utilisation by resident communities and Batswana in general.
For small vendors, there will be economic spin-offs. We will be having the games “market place” and if Batswana have wares, food and drinks, traditional artifacts to showcase our culture, they will be more than welcome. Opportunities are endless. In addition, our transport, retail, hospitality, creative and other industries are set to benefit from the guests Botswana will host.”
For Botswana to be the second country to host the games after Rabat, Morocco, Serufho says that shows a vote of confidence on Botswana`s capacity at an international stage; moving from being a nonentity to recognisable player in the world of sport and logistical dynamism.
“It just says quite a lot for our country to be the second country to host the African Youth Games.”
Meanwhile, Team Botswana Organising Committee has not set a medal target for the country.
The argument is that the games should help to unleash and groom talent of local athletes. They are also avoiding putting young athletes under pressure.
The committee also argues that non-disclosure of the target would draw more support from Batswana who are expected to attend and watch the games.
During the first African Youth Games, held in Morocco four years ago, Batswana sent 17 athletes and tallied six medals, including a silver medal in the 800m from Nijel Amos.
The games were Amos` first international challenge. Two years later, he won the country`s first Olympic medal: an 800m silver medal at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
As a result, for the African athletes, the Gaborone2014 games will serve as useful preparatory platform for the Youth Olympic Games slated for Nanjing, China in August.
The International Sport Federations of Athletics, basketball and swimming have also agreed to use Gaborone2014 Games as a qualifying tournament for Nanjing Youth Olympic games. ENDS
