Moorosi Tsiane
TEAM Lesotho Chef De Mission, Caswell Moru heaped praises to the athletes for splendid performance at the African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 Games following muddled preparations.
The games started a fortnight ago and came to an end last Sunday with Lesotho finishing third in overall medal table with 18 gold medals, 17 silver and 17 bronze medals adding up to 52 medals.
South Africa took the first position with 75 medals (37 gold, 27 silver, 11 bronze), while on Second is Botswana with 64 medals (24 gold, 21 silver and 19 bronze).
Moru said no one gave the team pulled a surprise and performed well despite all the challenges they encountered during preparations until the time the games started.
“There were many challenges and honestly no one really gave them support for them to perform in such a way.
“They surprised all of us because they outdid themselves given the little preparation time they had,” said Moru.
He said that one other challenge they encountered was receiving money late which also led to their delay in preparing the team.
“We received money very late to prepare for the team which means that our preparations were also delayed.”
Moru said they also couldn’t start camps in time because there were no proper arrangements done for the external students who were sitting for their final examinations.
“We also couldn’t start with camps early because the games were clashing with the final examinations of our external students,” said Moru.
“Had we better prepared, I believe we could have performed well and won probably more medals.”
He said one of the things that threatened the games was the number of Covid-19 cases that were escalating at an alarming rate within team Lesotho.
“The number of positive cases were worrying and it was mostly affecting our best athletes,” Moru said.
However, Moru said they benefited from the games, which includes the infrastructure legacy and exposure for the athletes.
“There are also some positives that we are taking from the games, things like infrastructure which I believe it will help us in the future while also preparing for other international games.
“Our athletes also got exposure because most still qualify to go to Malawi in the next edition of the games. They now have confidence in competing with their peers,” he said.
Moru further mentioned that they also got experience as administrators on how to run and prepare for international events.
He said they need to start as early as January 2022, to prepare for Malawi games.
“Time is already not on our side and I think if the Malawi team can prepare as early as January next year that will be better. The good thing is that most of athletes who competed this year will still be eligible for next year games,” said Moru.
“We already have a team so we need to work with these athletes that we already have. But that is also up to our national federations to see they keep these athletes active, we need to increase the number of our domestic competitions while also trying to take them to competitions outside the country as much as we can.”
