Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) is an IAAF recognised member officially representing Botswana as the national governing body for the sport of Athletics.
Less than six years after the independence of Botswana, the Botswana Athletics Association was formed at a meeting at the Gaborone Secondary School on June 18, 1972. The organization was registered in June 1979, naming Lt. General Mompati Merafhe as its president. After he retired from the military, Merafhe became Botswana's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Vice-President of Botswana from 2008 to 2012. The organization's responsibility covers the same broad umbrella of Athletics events as the world governing body, the IAAF, with the goal of athletes competing on the international stage. [1]
The current president is Phaphane Botlhale.
Botswana athletes have found success in long sprinting and middle distance events; Nijel Amos won the first Olympic medal as a junior athlete, finishing with a silver medal in the 800 metres at the 2012 Olympics behind David Rudisha's world record. Amos remain the World Junior Recordholder from that performance. Amantle Montsho is the 2011 World Champion at 400 meters. Isaac Makwala is the seventh fastest 400 meter runner in history and he leads a promising 4x400 metres relay team that was in contention to medal at the 2016 Olympics until the closing steps of the race.
Athletics is a group of sporting events that involves competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross-country running, and racewalking.
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The 14th IAAF World Championships in Athletics was an international athletics competition held in Moscow, Russia, from 10 to 18 August 2013. Initially, Russia won the most gold medals to top the table for the first time since 2001. It was also the first time ever the host nation took the top of the medal table. However, following the disqualification of Russian sprinter Antonina Krivoshapka for doping and after the redistribution of medals in the Women's 4 × 400 metres relay, the United States moved to the top of the medal table with eight golds. In the overall medal count, the United States won 26 medals in total, followed by Kenya with 12. With 1,784 athletes from 203 countries it was the biggest single sports event of the year. The number of spectators for the evening sessions was 268,548 surpassing Daegu 2011.
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Mokgadi Caster Semenya OIB is a South African middle-distance runner and winner of two Olympic gold medals and three World Championships in the women's 800 metres. She first won gold at the World Championships in 2009 and went on to win at the 2016 Olympics and the 2017 World Championships, where she also won a bronze medal in the 1500 metres. After the doping disqualification of Mariya Savinova, she was also awarded gold medals for the 2011 World Championships and the 2012 Olympics.
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The men's 800 metres competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, was held at the Olympic Stadium on 6–9 August. Fifty-five athletes from 43 nations competed. The event was won by David Rudisha of Kenya, the second consecutive and fourth overall title for Kenya in the event. Rudisha would later become the fourth man to successfully defend his Olympic 800 metres title, and the 11th to win two medals of any kind in the event. Nijel Amos' silver medal was the first Olympic medal ever for Botswana. Timothy Kitum of Kenya won the bronze medal.
Botswana competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. This was the nation's ninth appearance at the Olympics.
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Nijel Carlos Amilfitano Amos is a Botswana middle-distance runner who competes in the 800 metres. He won the silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics, which was Botswana's first ever Olympic medal. Amos claimed gold medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2015 All-Africa Games. At the African Championships in Athletics, he took golds in 2014, 2016 and 2018.
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Janieve Russell is a Jamaican track and field athlete who competes mainly in the 400 metres hurdles and the 400 metres sprint. She won an Olympic bronze medal in the 4 × 400 m relay in Tokyo 2021, where she also finished fourth in the 400m hurdles final in a personal best of 53.08 secs. She is a four-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist, winning the 400m hurdles title in 2018 and 2022, and the 4 × 400 m relay in 2014 and 2018. She has also won two relay silvers at the World Championships and a relay gold at the World Indoor Championships.
Botswana competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's tenth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics.
Sports in Botswana is diverse and reasonably well-developed. Though football, netball and athletics remain the most popular sports, numerous other sporting codes, including cricket, rugby, judo, swimming and tennis are active in the national sporting landscape. The Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC), together with the Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) and Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture (MYSC) are responsible for the overall management of sport in the country. In addition, there over 30 National Sport Federations (NSFs) and three school sport federations
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