Mollo to Take Part in Continental Olympic Qualifiers

The national Taekwondo team will take part in the All Africa Olympic qualifying games to be held in Cairo,
Egypt beginning January 21 to 23. This continental qualifying tournament will be preceded by a referees seminar from January 17 to 19.

In an interview, mentor of the national side, Warrant Officer Phatoli Mahao said the team, affectionately known as "Mollo", consists of four athletes including the experienced Mokete Mokhosi who will fight in the minus 80kg category and All Africa gold medallist Maiketso Komane in the minus 68kg men's section.

Silver medallist Puleng Lala in the plus 67 kg and Lineo Mochesane, who won a gold, in the minus 49 kg will represent the country in the women's division.

Warrant Officer Mahao said despite having started camp some time after last October's All Africa Games in Nigeria, he believes the selected players will defy all odds and do well in the tournament.

"We started camping only last Tuesday and the team is ill prepared considering what kind of countries we are going to meet in the tournament like the host Egypt. However, the players are very determined and have all it takes to bring something home and proceed to the 2004 Olympic Games scheduled in Athens, Greece later this year," he said.

The coach noted that they brought seven medals from the All Africa Games despite not having camped at all due to unforeseeable circumstances. The players were selected based on their previous performances and experience, he said.

Spokesperson for the national Taekwondo association, Moorosana Nkesi, blamed hosts Egypt for the national team not starting preparations in time.

"Egypt never sent us the invitation documents we should have presented to the Ministry of Sports for them to fund preparations for the tournament," he said.

He believed this was a strategy the Egyptians were trying to use to destabilize the national team so that it does not qualify for the Olympics. He also said they would still have to face what he said was biased refereeing by the Koreans who would favour the host country. Despite all these obstacles, they hope to do well and at the end of the day come out victorious.

Taekwondo was the only sport in which the country was able to bring home two gold, two silver and three bronze medals from the All Africa Gamed in Nigeria last October, putting Lesotho at number 16 on the medals table out of the 52 countries that took part in the tournament.

13 January 2004