Africa-Press – Lesotho. Lesotho had only two representatives; triple jump star, Lerato Sechele and the young long distance runner Manqabang Tsibela at this year’s Regional Annual Sports Awards (RASA)
held in Windhoek, Namibia at Safari Court Hotel on Saturday. Despite coming home empty handed the duo hoisted the Mountain Kingdom flag high fighting for honor
against champions of Region 5 in different sporting codes. Sechele was contesting for RASA Sportswoman of the year award against Malawi’s top female boxer, Anisha Basheel and South African
middle-distance runner and 2016 Olympic gold medalist-Caster Semenya. The SA’s Semenya become the biggest winner of the night as she scooped sportswoman and sportsperson of the year awards.
Tsibela who was making her second appearance in the awards since 2016 missed Junior Sportswoman of the Year award for the second time as it went to Moneyi
Chingaipe of Malawi. The other contester of the award was a promising female rower Lorryn Ashley from Zimbabwe. Members of the Region comprise of: Angola,
Botswana, eSwatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. This year’s awards were celebrated under the theme; “Celebrating Excellence, Inspiring
Innovation. ” The eligibility for the RASA is based on a country hosting its own national awards as winners from the national awards automatically qualify to be in the long list of nominees for the RASA, from
which the top three are selected and winners are announced during the RASA gala night. Sechele and Tsibela were the only Lesotho athletes who made it to the top three finalists as they were nominated along
with young runner Thebe Semoko. Sechele is the sportswoman of the year in the Lesotho Annual Sport Awards (LASA) organized by Lesotho Spot and Recreation Commission
(LSRC) while Tsibela was nominated for RASA after she won LASA Junior Female Sportsperson of
the year award this year. Even though she did not win the award Sechele told Informative Sport that she felt motivated to have made it to the top three and competing against the Region 5
finest women in sport. “That shows I have potential and can go places,” said Sechele. Therefore she promised after these awards she has to push harder to improve her performance.
Sechele is hoping to see Lesotho one day winning Region 5 awards, therefore she advised young upcoming athletes to work hard, ‘in order to compete against other champions from the region or from the world they have to be champions too. ’
The complete list of Rasa 2019 recipients is as follows:
Junior Sportswoman of the Year – Moneyi Chingaipe (Malawi); Junior Sportsman of the Year – Kennedy Luchembe (Zambia); Sportsman of the Year with Disability – Jonathan Ntutu
(South Africa); Sportswoman of the Year with Disability – Anrune Liebenberg
(South Africa); Sports Team of the Year – Banyana Banyana (South Africa); Coach
of the Year – Gilbert Nyamutsambwa (Zimbabwe); Confederation of the Year – Cana Zone IV; Sports Journalist of the Year – Tinashe Tirivavi (Zimbabwe); AUSC
Region Five Award Zambia; Sportsman of the Year – Wilfred Mashaya (Zimbabwe); Sportswoman of the Year – Caster Semenya (South Africa); Sports Person of the Year – Caster Semenya (South Africa).
