Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo, the first African sprinter in history to win a medal in the 100 metres at the 2023 World Athletics Championships, is also the African record holder in the 200 metres at just 21 years old. The new nugget of world sprinting is heading full speed towards the Paris Games to write his own Olympic legend and enter even more into the history of African sport.
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He is one of the most anticipated African athletes at the JO 2024 from Paris this summer. At the height of his 21st birthday, which he celebrated on June 7, Letsile Tebogo intends to challenge the Americans and Jamaicans in the 100m and 200m by becoming the new king of world sprinting.
This would not be the first time the Botswanan has attempted this, as he already made history in his discipline at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest last summer by becoming the first African sprinter in history to reach the podium in the 100m, the main event of theAthletics. He finished the race in second position (9″88), just five hundredths behind the American Noah Lyles. Not completely satisfied, Tebogo then won the bronze medal in the 200m (19”81) a few days later.
No other African athlete could boast of finishing in the top three in the 100m at the World Championships until Tebogo shone in Budapest, he who is also ” Africa’s fastest man over 200m “, as he did not fail to recall recently in a press conference, with the best continental time (19″50) established over this distance in July 2023 in London.
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World record holder in the 300m
Since this historic performance, the Botswanan diamond has continued to impress and pile up records against its competitors. On February 17, Tebogo achieved the best performance in history over 300m during the Simbine Classic, an outdoor meeting organized in Pretoria, South Africa.
On the legendary Pilditch Stadium track, the same one where American Michael Johnson, considered one of the greatest sprinters of all time, set the old world record in 2000 (30″85), Tebogo completed the distance in 30″69 and improved the world record of South African Wayde van Niekerk (30″81 in 2017).
Read alsoAthletics: Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo breaks 300m world record
For comparison, the previous 300m record set by Van Niekerk – current world record holder in the 400 metres in 43.03 at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro – was achieved a few weeks before his second world title in the 400 metres in London (43.98) and his silver medal in the 200 metres (20.11).
Tebogo’s stratospheric time in Pretoria was the first world record held by a Botswanan athlete in the discipline. The only downside is that World Athletics, the international federation of track and field, does not consider 300m times as official records since the distance is not contested in international competitions.
On April 20 in Nairobi, in his favorite distance of the 200m during the Kip Keino Classic, the young Botswanan finished in second place behind the American Courtney Lindsey, with whom he posted an identical time of 19″61. I don’t need to be number one of all time, being in the top three will be enough. “, Tebogo declared then, recalling that he still had ” a long season ahead of him » until the Paris Olympics.
Like Usain Bolt, “ I would like the public to remember me »
This summer, in the French capital, the 21-year-old will also seek to to follow in the footsteps of his idol, Jamaican Usain Bolt. His dream? To become the first African to win races dominated by the sprint legend in the previous decade. After Bolt, the ogre with eight Olympic gold medals from 2008 to 2016, retired in 2017, the Italian Marcell Jacobs and the Canadian Andre De Grasse won in 2021 in Tokyo in the 100m and 200m. Letsile Tebogo now wants to take up the torch and follow the path traced by Usain Bolt.
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” He is the person I admire the most. What he has accomplished is incredible. Every time he ran, I watched him on TV. “, he said in an interview with AFP. Everyone remembers Usain and I would like the public to remember me too when I hang up my gun. “, continued ambitiously Tebogo, who grew up in Kanye, a small town 70 km from the capital of Botswana, and who is now based at the University of Oregon on the west coast of the United States.
It was in Cali, Colombia, during his coronation at the Junior World Championships in 2022, that Letsile Tebogo has started imitating Usain Bolt for the first time, turning around to smile at Jamaican Bouwahjgie Nkrumie, his runner-up in the 100m race, as he crossed the finish line. The signature gesture of the Jamaican legend, who always put on a show during his outings. I didn’t mean to be disrespectful. I wanted the viewers to enjoy it and remind them of what Usain did in his day. “, the Botswanan diamond subsequently justified. One thing is certain, Letsile Tebogo is well on his way to making his mark again in Paris.
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