Africa-Press – Lesotho. South African outfit Olympia Royals Softball Club were crowned men’s champions of the second edition of the Pitbull Softball Summer Tournament on Sunday at the Ha Mabote police grounds
The Rustenburg-based side beat City Harks from Botswana 6-3 in the final and walked away with a trophy and gold medals. Kings, who were the only Lesotho’s representatives in the men’s competition, went home with bronze medals.
It was a different story in the women’s competition where local teams were in the ascendency. Parentos emerged as 15-1 winners over Gills in the final while Barbiekillers finished third.
This year was the second edition of the Pitbull Softball Summer Tournament after its launch last year and it marked the first time teams from South Africa and Botswana came to Lesotho to compete in it.
Speaking to thepost on behalf of the organisers, Kamoho Fosa said the tournament did not go how they expected even though the attendance was better than last year.
Fosa, who is the president of the Barbiekillers (women) and Benkillers (men) softball clubs, said the plan was to have three playing grounds but the organisers could only secure two grounds on Sunday, which meant some games had to be cancelled due to limited time.
One of the main challenges the organisers faced was lack of funding and sponsorship for the tournament. Fosa said the teams had to shoulder the responsibility of buying trophies and medals for the winners, which is why there was no prize money for the respective men’s and women’s champions.
“We don’t have funding which means when you have to host a tournament you have to take full responsibility.
It starts with medals, food for officials, water, transport and everything. But there are no funders and that is the main challenge,” he said. Fosa continued that it is crucial to have funding in order to prevent many sporting codes from dying away.
He said it hurts to bring a team all the way from Rustenburg and they only get a trophy for their winning efforts. He said not many international teams will come to local competitions if that is the case, and their presence is much needed in order for such a tournament to grow.
“When there is money we will attract more teams from outside to give us exposure because they play internationally, they have been to the Olympics, (and Softball) World Cup.
South Africa is top notch in terms of sport, so they give us that exposure,” he said. Fosa was also not happy with the overall performance of Lesotho’s teams.
He said some of his players did not make it to the tournament due to personal reasons and he believes they would have made a difference. Nonetheless, he said preparations for next year’s edition are already underway and he hopes to get sponsors on board.
The winning coach from Olympia Royals, Matome Thoka, said they came to Lesotho with one intention and that was to leave a mark so that everyone who watched them would always remember how they played.
However, he was not happy with the organisation of the tournament. “Both Saturday and Sunday, we arrived before the organisers, and to say the game starts at 9:00, it must strictly start by that time, not two hours later.
Teams must be professional and take the sport seriously because by failing to be punctual they put us under pressure because we still have to play and travel five hours back home,” Thoka said.
“There is still a need for development and educational sessions of organising tournaments for Lesotho’s softball games. This is just the beginning of our relationship, we are going to promote this tournament,” he said.
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