Sports Changed My Life – Ernest

There is a saying which says “hustle until you no longer have to introduce yourself”. Encounter the passionate local athlete who came from humble beginning to great heights. Goabaone Ernest Mosheleketi is a long and triple jump champion who worked hard to get where he is now. As a young boy growing up in a small village, he had a tough childhood, most of the time he was looking after his grandmother’s goats, and sometimes go to the farm with them, or play soccer with friends.

His breakthrough came when his mother changed schools for him as he got to learn some little stuff that he never knew were there. Ernest stated that at first he never took sports serious and had no idea that one day it could change his life to a better one. So everything he did in sports was just for fun. It happened that one of the teachers saw a potential in him while he was playing soccer at school and asked him to come for practice the following day. He went to the practice and was chosen to be amongst the school soccer team to participate as a goal keeper at another school. Mosheleketi continued with his journey of playing soccer until the same coach suggested that he try athletics and put him on the jumps side, little did he know that he will win at the get go! He qualified for the next round until he reached nationals and got selected to represent Botswana at the COSASSA games. It was the time he saw his light at the end of a tunnel and took the sport serious till date.

Because of his dedication and hard work, his light continued to shine bright. He has scooped a lot of medals from the time he started. His first medal was bronze, which he won from African Junior triple jump in 2011, zones 6 in Zambia with 2 silver medals, southern senior 2 silver medals, and Botswana games with 4 gold medals. World junior qualifier, Commonwealth games qualifier. Through all this, Mosheleketi stated that his mother, who is also her inspiration, motivated him to be strong and focus ahead. “Without her I don’t think I would have become who I am today,” says Mosheleketi.

Not only is he an athlete, he is also a business man with a clothing line called LURO which simply stands for Leader Under Rough Obstacles. Ernest said that the reason behind his brand name portrays the struggles he went through in life. He went through a lot even though he was the best in the country. Sometimes there were rejections when the association asked for a plane ticket on his behalf when he got opportunities to study jumps for free in other countries like America. This was indeed a challenge.

While others are devastated about how the Corona Virus has affected them in the career, it helped him to recover from the injury he had. He said he will make use of this period to get stronger before the Olympic season starts. However, he is still worried that if this pandemic continues it will restrict him from furthering his dreams.