26 Aug 2019

Botswana’s 400-metre runner, Christine Botlogetswe has qualified for the Diamond League finals billed for Zurich on August 29.

Botlogetswe finished on position six at the Paris Diamond League meeting with a time of 52.02 and she is on position three of the Diamond League log with 19 points. 

During the Paris meeting it was evident that the Rakops-born lass was very cautious, as she had just recovered from an injury.

She started the race at a very low pace and she was unable to go a bit flat on the first 100 metres on the bend and entered the back straight still with a low pace.

According to track and field analyst, Lentswe Charles, the athlete lost the race on the first metres of backs straight where she failed to develop and gain momentum and ran slower than the race pace. 

He said she also let other athletes in lane three to lane eight run fast as she was trying to chase Phyllis Francis. 

Francis, he said ran ‘madly’ on lane four  going strong and dictating the race factor with her quick pace accelerating madly on a high note from the 110 mark and the rest of the back straight. Charles said at around 120 metres, Botlogetswe found herself with the French Amandine Brossier very close to her with the gap behind her closed.

He said the two women, on the two inside lanes, became chasers having lost the race rhythm in the early moments of the race and found the rest of the field some metres away blowing the back straight wider and wider with a big gap behind them.

He said, when Botlogetswe entered the second bend, she tried to speed up and chase the pack, but it was too late and she went on to enter the homestretch failing to go aggressive and launch an explosive pace, since she used more energy trying to chase and close the big gap she made on the first 200 metres of the race.

 “Botlogetswe closed the gap slightly but failed to go tighter into the rest of the pack as the field ran on the homestretch with about four runners in front on a tough contest running on an extended line as if they are on an assault formation,” he said. Ends