Masilingi back with Botha 

Beatrice Masilingi has rejoined coach Henk Botha’s training group and is hard at work preparing for the 2025 athletics season.

Masilingi was previously with Newton Sports Agency in South Africa, where she was coached by South African coach Hennie Kriel, but she has since parted ways with Newton and joined the American-based CLD Sports marketing and management agency.

According to Botha, Masilingi had to return to Namibia after facing work permit problems in South Africa. She then decided to rejoin his training group.

“We had a discussion. One thing led to another, and then she asked if she can rejoin our group and we are very happy to have her back. Christine is also very happy and excited because it’s always good to have a high-quality training partner in your group,” he says.

Masilingi and Mboma both failed to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games this year, but they faced huge obstacles due to the World Athletics’ stringent targets of lowered testosterone levels they had to reach.

They were put on medication for close to a year and eventually reached the targets, but by then there was not enough time left to prepare adequately for the Olympics, let alone, meet the qualifying times, says Botha.

“I don’t want to make excuses, but the whole thing, preparing for the Olympics was unfair and, under the circumstances, it was just about impossible to get them ready. Beatrice only had about 21 days to qualify, and even then, with the medicine they had to take, you can’t just continue training as if nothing happened,” he adds.

“People must also understand how competitive it is because there are more than five million people who are aiming to reach the 200m final at the Olympic Games, and these days, the qualifying times are so difficult that most of the top athletes don’t even get there on qualifying times but on their world rankings. And the only way to get a good ranking is to run a lot of races, but they couldn’t do that,” he says.

According to Botha, there were no clear cut rules regarding what medication to use.

“We had to play around a bit, but luckily my wife is a medical doctor and she met other doctors and got more information and gave us some ideas. So now the girls take monthly injections and it’s basically just something that suppresses the testosterone, but this has led to new challenges, because in the past they could eat anything, but now gaining weight has become a big issue,” he says.

“We also had to change our training programme – we now have to work harder on speed endurance because the higher testosterone levels definitely gave them an advantage in speed endurance. The speed is still there, it’s just to get the speed to be available over longer distances and that is now my challenge as a coach.

“But I’m fairly positive that as soon as we can get that speed endurance back, we’ll see the old Christine and Beatrice,” he says.

Masilingi, meanwhile, says it is great to be back in Botha’s training group, but acknowledged that the medication had taken it’s toll, mentally and physically.

“It’s been a tough journey trying to control the testosterone levels and it made it difficult for us to excel. You feel a lot different, it changes you as a person, it plays around with your hormones and how you see life in general as well, so it’s difficult to stay happy and healthy,” she says.

“It drains your energy and I get tired faster, but I’m working hard. I’m determined to reach the top again and I’ll keep on pushing,” she adds.