05 Jul 2021

Sunday was a bad day for Botswana’s sprinter, Isaac ‘Badman’ Makwala as he finished on position six, with a time of 45.03 in a Wanda Diamond League meeting held in Stockholm, Sweden.

The race was won by Grenadian Kiran James with 44.63, followed by Trinidadian sprinter Deon Lendore, 44.73, while Dutch sprinter Liemarvin Bonevacia took position three with 44.80.

Makwala, who was running on lane six, started the race slowly, but increased the pace in the back straight and at some point, he was neck to neck with James, who dictated the race.

However, he faded in the last 50m, allowing some athletes to relegate him to position six.

Track and field analyst, Lentswe Charles said Makwala made a mistake by going with James, who ran flat from lane five and strongly accelerating on the back straight.

Running closer to James, he said that forced Makwala to use a lot of energy from around 150 to 350 metres of the race, and ended up decelerating and being unable to cope, letting four quarter milers pass him when he was approaching the finish line

“If at all he distributed his energies wisely in the 400m total racing distance, especially mid race, he could have gone untouchable, tighter, relaxed with more arm action and a clear acceleration on the homestretch clocking a 44 low seconds,” he said. Charles said Makwala’s opponents, who went past him, distributed energies wisely on the first half, which enabled them to go explosive in the last 30 metres of the race.

He said his time of  45.03 was not a bad  and he advised him to avoid slowing down and accelerate much during the dying moments of the races.

Charles said he was confident that Makwala’s fitness level could still produce a sub 45 mark, provided he had some speed reserve for 400m and puts more effort for the Olympic Games, where he would be running in star studded lineups. ENDS