15 Jun 2018

Botswana’s quarter-miler, Baboloki Thebe had a bad day in office at the IAAF 57^th Ostrava Golden Spike World in Czech Republic on Wednesday.

Thebe finished on unfamiliar territory on position seven, stopping the clock at 46.53, although he was tipped to give his Qatari friend, Haroun Abdalleleh hard time, but it was clear that Thebe left his running spikes back home, as he did not spark more especially in the last 100 metres.

Thebe started well from the block, and he looked determined to steal the show under the cold weather, but that was not to be as athletes such as Dominican Luguelín Santos and USA long jumper, Christian Taylor seemed too hard to handle for the Botswana 400 metre star.

At the end of the race, it was Abdalleleh who won the bragging rights cruising to the finish line with 44.63, followed by Santos with 45.43, while position three went to Taylor with 45.58.Thebe admitted he had a bad day in office adding that he ran the first 200 metres well but in the last half his feet failed to “do its magic”.“I will continue to work, and I am not going to be hard on myself, and I am still confident that with time I will find my rhythm. I am happy I managed to finish the race that’s what matters at the moment,” he said.

Furthermore, he said, he would not be taking a break for now as he would be competing in a series of meetings line up this season.

The last time Thebe lined up in a competitive race was in May 4 in the IAAF Doha Diamond League meeting, where he finished on position five with 45.58.Athletics coach Chilume Ntshwarang said in an interview that during the race, Thebe went out a lot too much in the first 300 metres.

He said it was evident that he could not survive the last quarter of the race, because he wanted to close the long stagger between him and Abdalleleh.

Ntshwarang admitted that the layoff might have also contributed to the athlete’s performance on the day, adding there were still more races to come, which woud afford him an opportunity to pick up the pieces. ENDS