. . . athlete keen to bring Lesotho’s second gold medal home
By Moorosi Tsiane
MASERU — Veteran athlete Selloane Tšoaeli will be gunning for gold at this year’s Commonwealth Games to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, from July 23 to August 3.
Tšoaeli, who specialises in heptathlon, which is a combined competition of high jump, shot put, 200 and 800-metre races, long jump and javelin, shot to national prominence after winning a gold and bronze medal at the 2010 African Senior Athletics Championship held in Nairobi, Kenya.
The 37-year-old says she is determined to win Lesotho’s second Commonwealth Games gold medal and emulate the heroics of Thabiso Moqhali, who won the marathon race at the 1998 edition of the quadrennial tournament held in Kuala Lumpur.
Tšoaeli will be making her second appearance at the Games following her debut in 2002 in Manchester, in which she came 10th.
However, after years of hard work, Tšoaeli believes she now has what it takes to succeed at the 70-nation event which is held every four years.
“This will be my second time competing in the Games, and I am determined to win my first Commonwealth medal,” Tšoaeli said this week.
But the amiable athlete would like to prove her preparedness for the global tournament when she takes part in the Botswana Athletics Championship set for May 3 in Gaborone.
“I will be competing in Botswana on May 3, so it is only after that championship that I can really determine my fitness level because we have only been training without competing outside the country,” she added.
While lamenting inadequate preparations, which she said have always been a problem for Lesotho athletes, Tšoaeli, however, vowed not to allow this “setback” to scupper her dream of winning the country’s second Commonwealth gold medal.
“Some nations started their Commonwealth preparations last year, but with us, it has always been a challenge to begin on time due to numerous challenges, which I don’t even want to talk about. But I will not allow this to frustrate my dreams because it does not depend on where you come from to achieve your dreams, but how determined a person is and self-belief.”
