games slated for Paris, France. The Rugby Africa Pre-Olympic Qualifiers are the first step towards possible qualification for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and Botswana will be looking to rewrite the history books and qualify for the first time. According to BRU Vice President Technical, Elijah Kokoro, the preparations for the tournament began as early as in February to ensure that the team progresses beyond the preliminary qualifying stage of the tournament. “We have really done our best in terms of availing resources, but usually preparations go hand in hand with how the plan has been drafted, how financially stable you are, currently there is a challenge to secure funds locally and we had to work with the little we have,” Kokoro said. He indicated that two weeks ago the team travelled to Pretoria, South Africa and were hosted by the Bulls Academy, where they took part in a training exercise to further sharpen their skills ahead of the tournament. “We were at the Bulls Academy in a very intense program, with high level members of the team which was really helpful because the 7s is currently not active in the region; the 7s have their own calendar so at the moment their circuit is currently not active. Initially we had wanted to go to Lesotho but we had to settle for South Africa because the 7s in Lesotho are currently in off season. An outside opportunity to train with the Bulls presented itself and we grabbed it to gauge our levels,” he said. The BRU Vice President also shared that they are looking to build a close relationship with the South African rugby giants, The Bulls, to advance their development programs. “From any sporting front, you always want to forge relationships with the best institutions around, so having an opportunity to work with The Bulls, is a very good opportunity for us—it is not something new though, in our history, we’ve had an opportunity to rub shoulders with them, so this is a continuity. We need to really formalize it to a proper professional level which will clearly guide us on how we can best engage. We want to take this relationship to greater heights,” he revealed. The team’s head coach, Kabo Batsile echoed the words of Kokoro, adding that nothing short of advancing to the next qualifying round billed for Zimbabwe next month will be accepted. Batsile has been in charge of the team and played prequalifiers for the World Cup and Commonwealth Games in which they were eliminated in the early stages of the two competitions. “We are targeting a top four finish, the next qualifying round needs four teams to qualify, so anything less than a top four finish will be unacceptable; we want to be in the next round in Zimbabwe. We believe it is very possible even though we are facing 12 other nations. We are however confident that we will be able to go through, we expect a much tougher challenge in Zimbabwe,” Batsile boldly stated. He added that the team comprises of a mixture of youth and experience. He said they will rely on their skills and pace to outwit their opponents at the tournament. Majority of the players are part of the team that competed at the Africa games qualifiers which were held in Uganda last year. Kokoro added to the coach’s remarks, sharing that, “This is continuity, the bulk of the team was in Uganda last year, we have the same coach, so this is not a fresh start but rather continuity and we believe that this time around we will do better,” the Vice President Technical concluded. Botswana has been drawn in Pool B of the Pre-Olympic Qualifiers, along with the hosts Mauritius, Lesotho as well as Algeria