Africa-Press – Lesotho. MASERU Lesotho’s triple jump star, Lerato Sechele and two upcoming runners; Thebe Semoko (male) and ‘Manqabang Tsibela (female) are the only three Lesotho athletes nominated for the 2019 Regional
Annual Sports Awards (RASA). This year’s RASA grand ceremony is scheduled to take place in Windhoek, Namibia on May 25, 2019. The Lesotho trio stood a chance to compete at this regional extravaganza after winning
different categories in the recent 3rd edition of the Lesotho Annual Sport Awards (LASA). Sechele was nominated after she scooped the Sportswoman of the Year Award at LASA.
Semoko scored double at LASA where he was named LASA Junior Male Sportsperson of the year as well as Newcomer of the year. Tsibela was named 2019 LASA Junior Female Sportsperson
of the Year. To qualify for Namibia, the trio will have to make it to top three of RASA in their respective categories. The voting process has already commenced.
The nine countries which have nominated the winners of their respective national sport awards for RASA 2019 include Angola (coming for the first time) Botswana,
Lesotho, eSwatini, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In 2017 Tsibela was among the RASA top three finalists under the same category but did not win.
She was contesting against Namibian Mayvonne Swart (Karate) and Zimbabwean Danielle Marie Bekker (Golf). Tsibela was the first Lesotho athlete to make it to the RASA finalists.
Last year Lesotho had Ramajake Monamane (Photographer) as the second person to represent Lesotho at RASA. Talking to Informative, Sport Sechele revealed that it was
her first time to compete at LASA and felt very honoured to have won upon her first debut in the awards. She said, she is looking forward to making it to the finalist
stage of RASA because that will motivate her more. LASA Coordinator ‘Malitsietsi Zwakala says it will be exciting to see Lesotho increase in numbers in the finals.
“We are eagerly waiting to see if they make it to the finals, and will be pleased if they all succeed,” mentioned Zwakala.
