Monese departs for debut Olympics

Phetetso Monese (left) ready to fly the flag

Lesotho’s number one cyclist Phetetso Monese leaves today for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The Rio Games will be Monese’s debut at the global showpiece and he will compete in the mountain bike cross country discipline. His event is scheduled for August 21 meaning he will have two weeks to acclimatise and get ready for the race.

Monese arrived back in Lesotho last week from a month-long trip to Europe where he competed at the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup and the BIKE Transalp stage race.

The ACE-The Sufferfest Lesotho MTB Team rider will be looking to continue his good form in Rio. The 31 year-old received special dispensation from the International Cycling Union (UCI) to compete at the Olympics as a result of his strong performances over the past year and Lesotho’s solid ranking.

Monese finished third at the African Continental MTB Championships in April in Butha-Buthe while Lesotho is ranked 33rd in the world.

Monese is rated 111th in the world and a good Olympics showing could see him crack the top 100 for the first time.

The Rio Olympics are Monese’s second major sporting event. He competed at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland. Monese has been sponsored with a new M100 000 bike by Giant Bicycles South Africa.

A learning experience in Botswana

To netball and Lesotho’s Under-21 netball team has missed out on the 2017 Netball World Youth Cup after going winless at last week’s qualification tournament in Gaborone, Botswana.

Lesotho finished last in the eight-nation competition won by South Africa. The top three nations – South Africa, Zimbabwe and Uganda – qualified for the Netball World Youth Cup next August.

Botswana, as the hosts of next year’s global finals, will also represent Africa at the championships. Lesotho will be looking to use the experience gained in Gaborone to build for the African Union Sports Council Region 5 games which will be held in Angola in December.

Final Standings

		Points
1	South Africa	14
2	Zimbabwe	12
3	Uganda	10
4	Zambia	8
5	Malawi	6
6	Botswana	4
7	Namibia	2
8	Lesotho	0