24 Jun 2018

Baboloki Thebe finished on position four with a time of 45.00 at the Madrid 2018 Meet on June 22.

Although Thebe had hoped to do better after his poor performance at the IAAF 57th Ostrava Golden Spike World Challenge where he finished on position five with 46.53, that was not to be.

Despite the fact that he did not finish on a respectable position nor clock a good time, there was an improvement with regards to his race approach .

However, Thebe said despite not running well he was happy that he managed to run 45.00 seconds which was his Season Best (SB) time.

He said he was confident that slowly his body was responding well  adding that  he would  soon get back to “his normal self”.

“I know people back home are very worried about my performance,but I can confidently say there is a huge improvement compared to my last race in Ostrava, even the race approach was different,” he said

Thebe’s next competition is in Budapest, Hungary where there is more competition lined up for him something he said  would give him ample time to get back to his rhythm.

The Madrid Meet was won by Dominican sprinter Luguelín Miguel Santos with 44.66 ,followed by Spain athletes Bruno Hortelano and Óscar Husillos who stopped the clocked at 44.69 and 44.73  respectively.

Nonetheless, track and field analyst Billy Tambula said Thebe took off very well as he maintained the stagger throughout the entire back stretch.

He said  there were fast athletes on the inside hence the need  for him to cover as much ground as possible before they appeared on his sight.

According to Tambula, Thebe ran last 100m metres well, adding that that was his promising performance comparing it with last week.

“45.00 seconds shows that with two races he will run a sub 44 which always brings motivation that he is close to his best. He is now adapting well,”he said.

In 800 metres, Boitumelo Masilo also had a bad day as he finished on the last position of the 11 athletes who were on the line up, recording a time of 1:50.02. ENDS