Leemisa Thuseho
PHETETSO Monese, Tumelo Makae and Eric Ramohanoe will represent Lesotho at the 2022 African continental MTB Championships in Windhoek, Namibia.
The event will be held on 22 and 23 April 2022.
Coached by Sehaole Mpopo and Malefane Morie, the team left the country yesterday.
Morie told the Lesotho Times this week that the team’s trip was being financed by Cycling Federation of Lesotho (CFL) while the Lesotho National Olympic Committee (LNOC) was providing transport.
Last month the association announced that it was uncertain whether the team would make it to Namibia. This was after the duo of Kabelo Makatile and Teboho Khantši missed the African Road Cycling Championships held in Egypt last month due to financial challenges. The duo failed to get help for the LNOC and the Lesotho Sport and Recreation Commission (LSRC).
However, Morie who is also the CFL public relations officer, this week said they were happy that Alliance had come on board.
“We are leaving tomorrow (yesterday) morning and we have received help from Alliance while the LNOC is helping us with transport. We are happy that finally, we will be able to send riders to the continental competition, thanks to our sponsors,” Morie said on Tuesday.
Morie said they were looking forward to using the event as part of the riders’ preparations for the Commonwealth Games in July in England.
He said he was hopeful that the riders would perform well given their intense preparations.
“I think the boys are ready. They have been training hard since last month as they were already aware that they would be representing the country.
“Early this month, they competed in Lesotho’s national road championships, and they all performed well. Since then, they have continued training defying the rains that have been falling in Maseru in the last few weeks,” Morie said.
