Africa-Press – Lesotho. Lesotho National Olympic Committee (LNOC) presented two qualified athletes who will be participating at Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games to be staged from July 23rd to August 08th
this year under women’s and men’s marathon scheduled to take place at Sapporo Odori Park. LNOC vice Secretary General Letsatsi Ntsibolane said on Wednesday that these athletes are Khoarahlane Seutloali and
‘Neheng Khatala.
“The preparations started earlier through the Olympic solidarity program which assist players to prepare for the
upcoming games, so LNOC has done its best to prepare for the games even in the midst of Covid-19 pandemic. As part of preparations, lately LNOC boxing
athletes have arrived in the country coming from Zambia for their training sessions in order to prepare for participation in any upcoming games,” Ntsibolane said.
He said the selected athletes are heading for the camp to be announced soon. He added that they are in good health condition as they already received Johnson and Johnson Covid-19 vaccine and the
doctor is checking on them on a daily basis. Ntsibolane further showed that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has proposed that the tournaments should
not be attended by many people and the athletes are expected to arrive five days before the games commence and depart immediately after the games. He said the
delegation expected is reduced to seven including athletes and these will be two players, Coach, Covid-19 Liaison Officer, Chef de mission, Team doctor and
Team admin. “These are expected to arrive in Tokyo on July 29th. They will not attend the opening ceremony, which will be on July 23rd,” Ntsibolane explained.
He noted that LNOC is proud to also be represented by IOC member and LNOC President ‘Matlohang Moiloa Ramoqopu and the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) Top Assistant Referee
Souru Phatšoane at the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games. Seutloali won silver in the 2020 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and has a personal best marathon of
2:11:04 (Olympic qualifying). He has competed in the 2019 Cape Town marathon
res: 2:11:04, 2019 Athletic South Africa (ASA) half marathon championships res: 7th 1:01:56, 2018 Warsaw half marathon res: 7th 1:04:40, 2017 Cape Town
marathon res: 15th 2:22:11 and South Africa (SA) half marathon Championship res: 15th 1:02:04. ‘Khatala is currently the national record holder with a 2:28:06 marathon.
Has participated in the Retail Capital Langa Marathon Challenge, Cape Town: 2:28:06, won silver in the IAAF, competed at the 2017 Cape Town marathon: 9th 2:41:43, 2018 Commonwealth Games
(Australia): 13th 2:51:04, 2019 Geneva Marathon (Switzerland) : 5th 2:37:49 and
2021 10,000m Kwazulu-Natal Athletics (KZNA) Championships.
