体坛英语新闻：Botswana softball team targets World Championship qualification

GABORONE, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Botswana women softball team left the country on Wednesday to neighbouring South Africa to compete in the World Championship qualifiers.

The qualifier tournament is scheduled to start in Pretoria on Thursday and end on Sunday.

Chatting to the media before the team's departure on Wednesday, team manager Bobby Khupe said they have assembled a very good team and was confident of a good result at the qualifiers.

He said their target is to win all their matches and qualify for the World Championships. Africa is only reserved two slots at the world championships, which will be battled out between Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Khupe said he has selected a balanced team made of seasoned competitors and some young, promising talent.

He said he expects the senior players in the team to guide the young ones to glory at the qualifiers.

He said despite Botswana having a good record in the region, they were not expecting an easy tournament and did not leave anything to chance during preparations.

He said it's every team's dream to compete at the biggest world stage hence they expect tough competition in South Africa.

The Word Baseball Softball Women World Championships will take place from August 2-12, 2018.

The Botswana women's team will draw inspiration from their male counterparts, who last year put a stellar performance at the men's championships in Canada to finish eight.