Mikia Kalati
TWENTY sports administrators have begun an eight-months sports management diploma sponsored by the Lesotho National Olympic Committee (LNOC) through the Olympic Solidarity.
The course, which started this week and will run until August, was launched by the Minister of Gender, Youth, Sports and Recreation Mahali Phamotse on Sunday.
This is the third time that the LNOC has managed to hold the course aimed at equipping sports administrators with tools and knowledge to help bring positive change in sports organisations.
The course comprises of six modules covering organising an Olympic sport, managing strategically, managing human resources, managing finances, managing marketing and organising a major sport event.
LNOC secretary general Morake Raleaka lauded the course saying it is good for administrators and ranked higher than all the other courses which they are offering.
“The diploma has an element of research in it because the modules are arranged in university format,” Raleaka said.
“We have two programme directors who were trained in Switzerland namely Mme Ntšeli Motsieloa and Mme Ntšabi Pheko, who are both teachers by profession.
“They are facilitating this course with other sitting lecturers. What we have identified six other people whom have the requisite skills in the field.”
He said they are working with Tšepo Hlojeng, a holder of a Masters in marketing who will teach a marketing module; Bahlakoana Shelile (governance) and Moleboheng Mokobocho (human resources) among others.
“For the recruitment of participants, we published a call for applications and the short listing was done by the programmes director.
“We have six female participants and 14 males,” he said.
Raleaka said he is confident that the course will go a long way in improving the standards of sports administration in the country.
Meanwhile, the LNOC has revealed that 800m star Tšepang Sello has just returned from a training camp at the Afriski Mountain Resort as per the recommendation of her coach Derek Van Rensburg.
The Lesotho runner, who is part of the Olympic Solidarity scholarship, was joined by a group of athletes from the University of Free State and beyond during the high-altitude training camp.
The camp closed with the annual Afriski High Altitude Street race which Sello won clocking 5 minutes 32 seconds while Simoney Weitz came second and Lizerie Ferreira came third.
Sello improved on her second-place finish in the last year’s edition of the race.
The camp started on December 27 and ended on January 13.
