Moorosi Tsiane

LONG jump starlet, Lerato Sechele, has the opportunity of another Olympic Solidarity Scholarship, saying this would hopefully result in her qualification for the next Olympics in Tokyo, Japan in 2020.

This is the second scholarship Sechele has been granted courtesy of the Lesotho National Olympic Committee.

She was among four athletes that were given a two year scholarship from 2014 to 2016 and the 23-year old spent those two years at a high performance training centre in Senegal.

However, things did not go according to plan as she failed to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics in Brazil.

Her latest scholarship, along with five other recipients, will run from 2017 to 2020.

The others are Mosito Lehata and Tšepang Sello (athletics), Moroke Mokhotho (boxing), Tumelo Makae (cycling) and Marumo Moloisane (taekwondo).

Sechele will train in Lesotho for the duration of the scholarship.

“I am happy for this new opportunity to make up for lost time and it is left for me to continue working hard because there are people who still believe in me,” Sechele told the Sunday Express.

“I have been doing well ever since my return from Senegal and I managed to set a new national record of 12.98 meters in France but that was last season. I had my second competition last week in Cape Town South Africa where I jumped 12.97 meters as my season best.

“The target is 13.00 meters and I am very hopeful that I can achieve that and in the next four years I will qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.”

Sechele said she would participate in different competitions including an event that was held yesterday in Pretoria, South Africa as part of efforts to secure qualification for next year’s Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.