DTCB Boxing Club Head Coach, Thebe Setlalekgosi, has resurfaced at the boxing national team once more to lead the team on an interim basis until July after the Commonwealth games that are slated for Birmingham, England.
Setlalekgosi’s coaching credentials allow him to lead the national team since he is a three-star coach. The technical team is concluded by Gibson Rauwe and Pearl Morake-Mooketsi as assistant coaches.
Setlalekgosi has a wealth of experience having previously led the Botswana Boxing team to the 2008 Beijing Olympics in China where he drilled Khumiso Ikgopoleng and Thato Batshegi.
In 2014, he was once more roped in to lead the boxing team to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland where his troops, which consisted the likes of Oteng Oteng, Mmusi Tswiige and Keneilwe Rakhudu managed to finish in the round of 16 and quarterfinal stages.
Therefore this will be the second time that Setlalekgosi will be leading the senior team to the Commonwealth games.
However, his first assignment is to lead the team all the way at the Africa Zone IV Boxing Championships, which are slated for Mozambique, Maputo from the 18th – 23rd of April.
Speaking in an interview with this publication, Setlalekgosi was elated on his return to the national team.
“As a patriotic Motswana, it is always an honour to lead any national team. I have been here before, done it and I have never disappointed,” he said. Setlalekgosi’s team of pugilists consists of Keamogetse Kenosi, Lethabo Modukanele, Aratwa Kasemang, Treasure Moremi, Rajab Otukile, Kobamelo Molatlhegi and George Molwantwa.
“It’s been almost seven years without coaching the national team but I think Zone IV tourney is not a competition I can count on. It’s for easy preparations to see how the boxers can handle pressure. Thus far, I have looked at the physical condition of the team but they are not bad since they have been playing in inter-club competitions. But I would have loved to drill the team for one month or two before the competition, not 18 days before the event. It’s never good or enough but it’s all due to financial challenges, if we had a sponsorl, we could be having better preparations,” he said.
Setlalekgosi is holding the fort in the absence of Healer Modiradilo, who was appointed to the position of national team head coach early this year.
Quizzed about Modiradilo’s whereabouts, Botswana Boxing Association (BoBA) mouthpiece, Moitshepi Nkabiti, said, “We have appointed Modiradilo to lead the team in this four-year Olympic cycle but for now he is not yet released by his employer,” he said.