10 Apr 2018

Amantle Montsho and Christene Botlogetswe will slug it out in the finals today (April 11) after  both finishing on position two in their respective heats.

Montsho, who was in semi-final one, finished on position two clocking 51.26 behind Jamaica’s Anastasia Le-Roy who finished first with 51.08. 

Montsho continues to show maturity in her races although she slowed down close to the finish line.

One hopes that she will show the world her true colours tomorrow in the finals.

Botlogetswe lifted Batswana’s spirits as she fought hard in the last 100m to book herself a slot in the finals.

She clocked her Personal Best (PB) of 51.41 and position two. In semi-final two, Galefele Moroko failed to proceed to the finals after finishing sixth with a time of 54.27.

Athletics analyst Billy Tambula said Montsho started well and negotiated all the curves at high speed to take the lead.

He said Montsho then took her last 100m steadily to finish on an automatic qualification spot, and that she did not need to challenge Le-roy for first position since the conditions were not friendly.

“She has achieved her goals and lets hope the conditions are better for the finals so that we get the best of her,” he said.

Talking about Moroko, he said the pace was  too high for her from the blocks, adding that she did manage to hold on for half of the race but faded quickly.

“Looking at the field it was always going to be tough for Moroko to get a better position in the sense that she is still young and she can only take a lot of experience from the games,” he said

Tambula said Botlogetswe decided to start differently this time by maintaining her speed for the better part of the race, and that it worked for her as she reserved some energy for the home stretch where she needed it most.

“You could see that she was very strong when the front runners began to tire up. Her last 100m was very impressive,” he said. ENDS