The Botswana women’s team have started their preparations ahead of their maiden TotalEnergies Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.

The Mares knocked out Zimbabwe in the last round of the qualifiers to book a spot in the competition scheduled for 2-23 July in Morocco. Togo, Burkina Faso and Burundi are the other debutants at this year’s tournament.

Zambia and South Africa make it three COSAFA nations that have qualified for the Women’s AFCON

Coach Gaoletlhoo Nkutlwisang’s charges are currently in camp where she has called up new players in order to create a bigger pool and competition in her squad. Nkutlwisang will host a series of camps in the build-up to the competition before she announces her final squad.

“I have called a few more players to create competition, no-one should be comfortable, we all need to work hard to be ready for WAFCON. We need all players knowing the philosophy and what we expect of them, hence why we will have three players to six players in a position. WAFCON is not far so we also need to closely observe our fitness,” she told Cosafa.com.

The Mares will be in camp until 15 April.

Source: CAF