The BNOC is optimistic that having the largest contingent ever, bettering the 12 that competed at Beijing 2008, will bring about an improved medal haul.
The committee is left with just over 200 days to put together a formidable team to compete at the highest stage of world sports.
Preparations are underway for other codes preparing to take part in their Olympic qualifiers. The women’s volleyball team has recently started camp in Gaborone in preparation for their qualifiers in Cameroon, starting on February 8.
A mixture of veterans and promising youngsters, including Baboloki Thebe and Karabo Sibanda, are expected to be sent to the Brazilian city.
Thebe won silver in the boys’ 200m at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games, while Sibanda finished runner-up in the boys’ 400m at the same event.
Botswana sent just four athletes to London 2012, where Nijel Amos became the country’s first athlete to a win an Olympic medal.
Amos clocked a world junior record and national record time of 1 min 41.73sec to claim 800m silver behind Kenya’s David Rudisha, whose time of 1:40.91 broke the world record.
BNOC chief executive Tuelo Serufho says the body wants to give Botswana the “perfect birthday present” at Rio.
“We want to perform better than we did in London,” he said. “In London we could have sent more but, in 2010, we took a decision to send only competitive athletes.In the past, regardless of how ill-prepared an athlete was, we used to send them for exposure. But now we focus on being competitive and also consider our meagre resources.
One athlete who is expected to miss out on selection is former 400m world champion Amantle Montsho, who is currently serving a two-year suspension after being found guilty of taking a banned substance during the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
The 32-year-old, the 2011 world champion and 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist, tested positive for the stimulant methylhexaneamine after finishing fourth.
Having decided not to appeal the ban due to prohibitive costs of $17,500, Montsho will not be able to return to competition until July – one month before Rio 2016. Serufho said unless Montsho’s suspension is reduced, she would watch the Olympic action from the sidelines.
The ban is a huge stain on the career of Montsho, whose victory in Daegu in 2011 made her the first athlete from Botswana ever to win a world or Olympic title.
After finishing fourth in the Olympics at London 2012, she narrowly failed to retain her world title at Moscow a year later when she led for most of the race only to be pipped on the line by Britain’s Christine Ohuruogu.
Montsho also won consecutive gold medals in 2007 and 2011 at the All-Africa Games and claimed victory at the African Championships in 2008, 2010 and 2012.
Meanwhile, two Judokas Gavin Mogopa and Thato Lebang are still in Japan, undergoing training. The two will soon move to Tunisia for their next leg of preparations until April 11.
While in Tunisia the duo will compete in two Olympic qualification events, with the anticipation of securing spots on the Botswana Olympic Team.
The boxing team has been in camp since the beginning of December 2015, while two swimmers, Naomi Ruele and David van der Colff, are in training at their respective bases in the USA.
Serufho said in 2012 Botswana sent only four athletes qualified for the Games in athletics and boxing. He said they managed to bring back the country’s first ever Olympic Games Medal with Amos winning a silver medal.
Source: African News Agency (ANA)
