- P600 000 grants Gold status to Orange Botswana
- 03 Beverages is the official water supplier
- P2m deal makes FNB Botswana the title sponsor
Projected as the biggest athletics event ever to be held in southern Africa, the Botswana Golden Grand Prix continues to attract more sponsors.
Just last month, the organisers announced First National Bank Foundation – FNB Foundation, for short – as the title sponsor of what is destined to become a major annual destination of big-name athletes from around the world to the tune of P2 million.
What this means is that henceforward – which is actually the beginning – the event will be known as the FNB Botswana Golden Grand Prix. In a matter of days thereafter, the organisers unveiled 03 Beverages as the official water supplier for the meet that is billed for the National Stadium in Gaborone on the 29th of this month.
On Monday, this week, news broke that Orange Botswana had signed a sponsorship deal with the Botswana National Sports Commission (BNSC) for the inaugural FNB Botswana Golden Grand Prix. Valued at P600 000, the deal will see delivery of the inaugural edition of the highly-anticipated event with Orange Botswana the Gold Sponsor. Botswana has been given the opportunity to host the World Athletics Continental Tour that will immediately enter of the official calendar of World Athletics that joins an annual series of independent track and field athletics competitions.
The FNB Botswana Golden Grand Prix is one of only two World Continental Tour Gold Track and Field competitions hosted in Africa annually, and the only one in southern Africa with a Gold status. Botswana has the rights to host this esteemed event for three years, from 2023 to 2025. Among top athletes coming to the Gaborone is the world’s third-fastest woman (100m), Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica. The multiple Olympic and World Championships gold medallist is nicknamed “Pocket Rocket” because of her 5ft height.
Other exciting athletes coming to Gaborone include Kirani James, who became a world 400m champion at the age of 18 and an Olympic champion a year later at the London Olympics in 2012. Sha’Carri Richardson of the US, who is the sixth fastest woman in the 100m race (10.75 seconds) in athletics history, is also coming to the FNB Botswana Golden Grand Prix.
From Kenya, the African record holder in the 100m (9.77 seconds) and ninth-fastest man of all time in the race, Ferdinand Omanyala, has also confirmed his participation in the FNB Botswana Golden Grand Prix. On the home front, among others Botswana will ‘field’ Letsile Tebogo, the first Motswana to win a 100m title at any World Championship level, and Akani Simbini, who is the 2018 Commonwealth Champion in the men’s 100m race.
