here is a possibility of the world’s best relay teams converging on Botswana next year to compete in the 2026 World Athletics Relays.
Botswana has submitted a bid to host the showpiece event and as part of the assessment process a delegation from World Athletics will come here from February 21-23.
Botswana Athletics Association vice president Oabona Theetso says the delegation will inspect facilities in the country. He said the delegation would tour the National Stadium, hospitals, entry points, hotels and airport to assess whether the country was ready to host the world.
“We confidently submitted the bid. Remember, it is part of government’s desire to diversify the economy and we believe that as sport people, we can do our part with sport tourism,” Theetso said in an interview today.
He was happy that the National Stadium was being renovated, saying therefore that it would be ideal if the University of Botswana Stadium could also be attended to so that it could be used as a warm up track.
Theetso expressed the association’s confidence that the country had what it takes to successfully host the World Athletics Relays.
Furthermore, he said it was cheaper to host the World Athletics Relays compared to competitions such as the World Championships, also pointing that the relays were a two-day event.
He therefore was confident that World Athletics would consider giving Botswana the bid, adding that the peace and tranquility in Botswana was an added advantage for the country.
“Look at the political stability that we have in our country, everyone would want to come here, and I think everyone wants to appreciate where the 200 metres champion, Letsile Tebogo comes from,” he said.
After successfully meeting the May 10, 2024 pre-qualification form submission, Theetso said the association was now left with meeting the bid application form submission deadline of February 21, 2025.
Meanwhile, in the last edition of the World Relays in Bahamas 2024, the Botswana quartet of Collen Kebinatshipi, Letsile Tebogo, Leungo Scotch and Bayapo Ndori were crowned the 4x 400 men’s champions with a world leading (WL) time of 2:59.11.
Source: https://dailynews.gov.bw/news-detail/80763
