Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Lesotho young upcoming lawn tennis player, Nyathi Motlojoa (18) on Monday became the first Lesotho athletes to win a medal in the ongoing African Union Sports Council Region 5 Games in Botswana.
Nyathi grabbed a bronze medal after beating Bruno Nhavane of Mozambique in the 3rd place play offs. Yesterday, the Lesotho starlet Manqabang Tsibela added to the number of Lesotho medals when scooping a bronze medal in the ladies 1500m.
Tsibela is also looking forward to compete in the 3000m today even though she was initially registered for the 800m. Her coach Mr Khauta Makhooana revealed that they decided to switch her to the 3000m race because she has already competed in the 1500m race and therefore believes she won’t have the speed to survive the pressure of the 800m race.
According to Makhooana, Tsibela could have performed better had it not been for the new shoes she wore for this particular race. The running shoes arrived a day before the race and she seemed to not be comfortable with them.
Two years ago at the same games in Angola, Tsibela brought home two gold medals in both the 1500m and 3000m. “We are looking for a gold medal through her performance, so we decided that she runs bare foot this time,” Makhoane told Informative Sport.
On the other hand, the American based tennis player Motlojoa became the only Lesotho tennis player to reach the medals zone. Lesotho had four tennis players in this competition being Motlojoa, Mpalleng Sempe, Kekeletso Moseme and ‘Manyama Maisa.
After winning the medal, Motlojoa said he is happy about making history and winning the first medal in this year’s showpiece for the country. Even though he won a bronze medal, he believes he could have done much better if he did not have to focus on exams and the training concurrently.
The night before his final match, Motlojoa wrote an online examination. His other challenge was the hot weather condition. Overseas where he is currently based, it is winter.
However, he is very happy he coped. . “I had two final examinations so I only slept for one hour and half,” said Motlojoa. Motlojoa believes that winning a medal will motivate other players and show them that despite the challenges, winning is possible.
Being based in America, he believes contributed tremendously in enhancing his performance, citing that playing amongst high profile players regularly makes him to reach greater heights and strive to be one of the best.
Tennis coach Mrs Seapehi Senatla Nkautsana said she is happy with performance shown by the athletes. She said apart from the athletes busy study schedules, there was not enough funding, thus making it difficult for them to stage or take the athletes for international, bilateral friendly games. According to Nkautsane this is their second international after the African Youth Games held in Algeria this year.
