Patience Urged On Women Athletes

Botswana national athletics coach Justice Dipeba has urged patience with the women athletes particularly the 4x400m and 4x100m relay teams following criticism of their performance during and after the Debswana World Athletics Relays Gaborone 2026. Speaking in an interview, Dipeba said the squad is still in a formative stage, with several athletes only recently identified through Botswana Athletics Association competitions. “Improvement is there to be honest, those who follow athletics would know, it’s a young team,” he said.

He noted that many of the athletes had not yet competed at BISA, regional, or continental level prior to their current exposure. “At that stage they didn’t run BISA, or Regional and or Continental competitions, some were identified this year during BAA competitions,” Dipeba said. “We are happy and positive that we are going on the right direction, we are seeing progress,” he said, adding that the coaching team had specifically assessed the potential of the 4x400m squad.

“We wanted to see if their 4x400m can’t do better, they will arrive,” he said. He stressed a collective responsibility between coaches and male athletes to manage expectations and development carefully. “We are agreeing as coaches and athletes that we need to protect them, we see promise on them, they are young and we need to protect them,” he said.

[paywall]

Dipeba added that investment and structured support would be critical for future success. “If it was allowed this is the team that needs to be protected and invested on, with support we can go somewhere,” he said.

[/paywall]