African 400m champion Amantle Montsho (© Jiro Mochizuki (Agence shot))
Relatively new in their main events, high jumper Kabelo Kgosiemang and world 400m leader Amantle Montsho believe they are ready to make history for Botswana in Beijing as the Southern African nation counts on the African Championship winning duo and long jumper Gable Garenamotse to win its first Olympic medal in history.
Kabelo improved his national record to 2.34m to win his African title in Addis Ababa, in May. Currently fourth in the world lists, the 2007 Osaka World Championship finalist will make his Olympic debut in the Chinese capital.
"It's a great feeling and I am looking forward to taking part in the Olympics. I want to make my nation proud and bring good results. Botswana has never won a medal in the Olympics so it would be a pleasure for me to win," commented the 22-year-old from Rakhuna.
"It's my first Olympics. I have met a lot of guys I will be competing with in Beijing. I am ready to challenge and fight for the gold medal. I cannot tell you that I will break my PB or the African record. It will depend on the conditions, but I am focused, confident and ready," he said.
Kabelo played football like many kinds in his country but "my teachers encouraged me to do athletics and told me I had talent for the High Jump."
He took the High Jump in 2003 and was third at the African Junior Championships in Cameroon that year. He took the title two years later in Tunisia, where he met Wolfgang Ritzdorf.
The German, who coached the likes of Olympic champions Ulrike Meyfarth and Heike Henkel, was impressed by the youngster's talent and came back from retirement to guide him at the World High Jump Centre in Cologne, Germany, from 2005.
And his new pupil did not prove him wrong as he cleared 2.30 to win his first continental title in Bambous, Mauritius (2006). He went on to finish fourth at the 2006 World Cup in Athens and made it to the final (9th) at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka.
I have dreamed of the final
On the track, his compatriot Amantle Montsho has been one the sensations this season and agrees with Kabelo on her Olympic chances.
"Looking at how I have been training with my coach, I am sure I am ready for the Olympics. I know all eyes are on me. I am the world leader and I hope to surprise my country and the people all around", said the 25-year old from Maun, the third largest city in Botswana.
Amantle confessed she did not feel surprised by her world leading 49.83 sec, a personal best by over a second and the fourth fastest time every by an African woman.
"I was expecting this time. I had been training for the African Champs since January", under the guidance of Ivorian coach Anthony Coffi at the IAAF High Performance Training Centre in Dakar.
A former 100-200m sprinter, Coffi convinced her to move up to the one-lap event in 2003. A wild card enabled her to run her first Olympics in Athens 2004, before she claimed her first continental success with a silver medal at the 2006 African Championships.
In 2007, she improved her best by over a second (52.14 to 50.90) and in the process reached the semi-finals at the World Championships in Osaka and struck gold at the All-African Games in Algiers.
The present season has been a revelation. After running the semi-finals at the World Indoor Championships, she took advantage of Addis Ababa's high altitude to post her impressive 49.83 for gold.
She also broke her national 200m record with 23.02 later in May and ran in the 51-second zone in three European meetings.
"I have dreamed of the final. If I get there, it will be serious and will do all my best to aim for a medal. Back home they are very proud of me and wishing me good luck," she commented on her chances in Beijing.
Kabelo believes there is great potential in their country. "Every kid would grow up and their parents would take them to a football field without trying to find out where they are talented. They just buy them a ball and they play football. There's a lot of talent for athletics."
HPTC final work out
A third more experienced medal hopeful is 29-year old Long Jumper Gable Garenamotse, who was close to the podium with a fourth place at the World Indoor Championships in Valencia.
He has jumped 8.22 this season, close to his national record of 8.27, set in 2006.
Kabelo and Amantle completed her preparation before travelling to Beijing at the IAAF High Performance Training Centre in the Malaysian capital.
They were joined by Senegal's 2007 World Championships Long Jump finalist and 2008 African Triple Jump champion Ndiss Kaba Badji and Nigeria's African Championship Triple bronze medallist Chinonye Ohadugha, also from the IAAF HPTC in Senegal, as well as Turkey's 6.93m long jumper Karin Mey Melis.
Glody Dube became the first athlete from Botswana to reach an Olympic final in athletics, when seventh in the 800m in Sydney 2000, followed by the men's 4x400m quartet, who finished eighth in Athens 2004.
Will the trio of Kgosiemang, Garenamotse and Montsho and their performance mark a turning point in the sporting history of their football-crazy nation? "I cannot say much. I'd rather speak with my results. After I compete I will tell you," Kabelo concluded.
Javier Clavelo Robinson for the IAAF
