Botswana Beach Volleyball duo of George Chiswaniso and Sekao Jack became the center of attraction in Lesotho following their exceptional performance at the recent beach volleyball series number 6 championships held in Maseru at the over the weekend. The duo beat the Africa’s best, Mozambique to become the champions of this series tournament that has been rotating around Africa since January 2022.
Chiswaniso and Sekao has been consistent in this series games playing 6 out of 6 games and only managing a third place finish (bronze) in Mozambique, 1 Silver in Zimbabwe and 2 gold in Zambia. Mozambique Team A and B has been dominating in both men and women teams giving other teams no chance to win ahead of them. In an exclusive interview with the duo upon their arrival in Gaborone, Chiswaniso said they are happy to have beaten their close rivals which as their ultimate goal since the beginning of these series.
“Having defeated the Mozambican team is a dream comes true for us because we have been working hard at training, mostly preparing for them specifically because they are always giving us a hard time like a hard nut to crack. The victory is a true reflection of work in progress and growth amongst us as a team. This time around in Lesotho we could see that we are a better team, because we dominated all of our preliminary games until the semi-finals where we defeated them 2-1 and the final game we conquered them from the first set until the last and we are very happy to have improved our rankings and position at continental and international level. He said.
Jack attributed their performance to the exposure they got at the recent Africa Beach Volleyball Championships that was held in Morocco in August where they finished 4th and qualified for the 2023 world championships slated for Mexico. “The exposure and experience we got from Morocco has really done it for us especially acclimatizing to playing under a big crown and best teams across Africa. This calls for more hard work and we are not going to gauge us with teams from Mozambique, it is all about team work, determination and discipline,” he added.
For his part team coach Kabelo Marumo said it has always been their intention to win gold in this tournament especially against Mozambique. “ We are now content with the results and I can safely say mission accomplished. All what we need is support from all relevant stakeholders because our team has a mammoth task ahead of them since they will be making a debut at the world championships next year. They need to train more and frequently compete in tournaments so to keep fit and ready for the world championships. I have realized that qualifying for the world champs improved their mental strength and now they have confidence and they believe that they can now conquer and beat any team that comes before them. We will be going back to the drawing board and re plan our 2023 strategy that will usher us to the world championships.,” he said.
