05 Aug 2024

Botswana’s 400m runners Collen Kebinatshipi, and Bayapo Ndori will today compete in the semi-finals at the ongoing Paris Olympic games. 

Kebinatshipi qualified after finishing in position three in heat two with a Personal Best time of 44.55 while Ndori finished second in heat five with a time of 44.87. 

The two recently staged an impressive performance at the Monaco Diamond League where they were focused on sharpening form ahead of the Olympics. 

The duo’s  commendable performance also gave them the much needed boost to shine on the international stage.

Still at the Olympics, Leungo Scotch made it to the 400m semi-final after finishing second in the repechage heat three, with a time of 45.33. He qualified as one of the fastest number two yesterday.

In men’s 400m hurdles, Victor Nteweng finished fifth with 49.65 in heat three. He will also try to qualify for the semis in the repechage today.

Meanwhile Letsile Tebogo’s name will be engraved in history books as one of the young athletes amongst the world greatest eight who made history to have broken 10 seconds in a wind legal race.

He finished sixth in the 100m Olympic final with a Personal Best and a National Record of 9.86, a big feat, which no athlete have ever achieved in Botswana. 

The final was epic with the winner, Noah Lyles of USA and Thompson Kishane of Jamaica sharing the same time but were separated by five thousandths of a second. However, during the race, Tebogo looked sharp more especially on acceleration.

Nonetheless,  competition was fierce and he had to dig deeper to claim position six. Botswana coach, Chilume Ntshwarang, said Tebogo was slow from the blocks and catching up was difficult because he was up against tough opponents.

“The 100m event is a problem on its own, coming from behind is always problematic, and if you watched the race, many athletes lost form as they were trying to catch up,” he said. Ntshwarang said overall, he was impressed with Tebogo fighting spirit as he did not shy away from challenging some of his opponents.

Sunday Standard sport editor, Botlhale Koothopile said the final was by all means a tight one amongst world’s best. He said Tebogo did well given that he was just 21 years and it was his Olympic debut. “There is still much to expect from him.

For this race, he was the slowest off the blocks, and in an event, when you are against the very best in the world and every millisecond counts, he had to exert himself to try and catch up. Unfortunately, it was never to be his race,” he said. 

Koothopile said Tebogo was neck to neck with Lyles the first 40m, but he hit plateau and could not manage to kick on at the same time. 

He said aside from his slow start, there was not much to fault Tebogo with his execution of the race.

 “Given his age and being the youngest in the line-up, his future is very bright. He will be 25 and experienced at his next Olympics,” he said. ENDS