Weightlifting team off to Uzbekistan

Leemisa Thuseho
WEIGHTLIFTERS, Machachamise Ntšinyi and Thapelo
Sebota, will on Saturday jet off to Tashkent, Uzbekistan,
for the World Weightlifting Championships.
The championships will run from 7 to 17 December.
The duo will be coached by Relebohile Motjamela.
Ntšinyi will compete in the 73kg category while Sebota is
in the 61kg category.
“Two weightlifters and their coach are leaving the country
for Uzbekistan on 4 December,” Lesotho Weightlifting
Federation (LWF) secretary general, Bothobile Shebe, told
Lesotho Times this week.
While all plans were in place, the LWF is worried about
the travel restrictions that have been imposed for travelers
from southern Africa by different countries over the Omicron
variant of Covid-19.
Because of the new variant, the United States and the
United Kingdom, among others, last week announced travel
restrictions from southern African countries among them
Lesotho.
“The trip is being sponsored by the Lesotho National
Olympic Committee (LNOC) and the preparations have gone
well. The only worry is that some countries have started enforcing
travel restrictions because of the new Covid-19 variant
and Lesotho is one of the countries that has been added
to a ‘red list’”.
“The trip is now uncertain but we will announce any new
developments soon,” Shebe revealed.
The championships will also be used as qualifiers for
the Birmingham, UK Commonwealth Games to be held between
July and August next year.
Initially, the championships were to be followed by the
International Weightlifting (IWF) elective congress from 20
to 21 December but Shebe said the congress has now been
postponed indefinitely.