After claiming the silver medal in the 100m final at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Botswana’s new sprint sensation Letsile Tebogo paid tribute to the African sprinters who have paved the way for him to become the first man from the continent to reach the podium in the event. He even went as far as suggesting he would have offered up his place to South Africa’s Akani Simbine, who was disqualified from the semifinals after a false start, if he could have.
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The humble 20-year-old stormed to a new national record of 9.88 seconds in the 100m final behind American Noah Lyles on Sunday night and said afterwards: “For Akani I’m really sad that he didn’t make it to the final because I really wanted him to be there.
“Even I could move that space for him… because they have been doing this for a long time and they really deserve the medals,” he added referring to Simbine and Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala who had the world’s second quickest time of the season heading into the World Championships but finished a disappointing seventh in the final in 10.07.
Speaking about the rise of sprinting on the African continent, Tebogo added: “It really shows that the continent has a lot of potential, looking at the likes of Ferdinand and Akani. For me I really wanted them to have this medal before me, so that I can come up knowing that I have two African brothers who got this medal and they really motivate me going forward, but by the grace of God I got it first.”
All eyes will now turn to the 200m where Tebogo is also scheduled to compete. It’s the event in which he recently broke iconic Namibian sprinter Frankie Fredericks’ 26-year-old African record set at the Atlanta Olympics but it’s also the title that Lyles will be defending, having claimed 200m gold at last year’s World Championships in Oregon and also in Doha three years before that. Those heats are set for Wednesday, beginning at 12.50pm.
Unlike the shorter sprint, several Africans have featured on the 200m podium at World Championships. The most recent was South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk who look silver in 2017 when he doubled up with the 400m in which he claimed gold. Fredericks himself claimed 200m gold back in 1993.
Tebogo will be keeping his head about him heading into the 200m heats, though.
“The one thing I've learned at these World Championships is that you have to be very well prepared mentally and emotionally. If anything distracts you, you can go home,” he said.