20 Feb 2022

Letsile Tebogo and Thapelo Monaiwa were the toast of the day during the Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) track and field series at the National Stadium on Saturday.

Tebogo broke his 100 metres national record of 10.11 by clocking a World Leading time of 10.08.

Monaiwa on one hand qualified for the Africa Senior Championship after jumping a Personal Best of 7.95 metres.

The 100 metre dash took long to finally take off due to numerous false starts and one might have thought that would kill the momentum of the race especially that only three out of five competed.

However, Tebogo who was disqualified last week in Francistown remained focused and when the starting gun went off, his determination was evident.

Tebogo pushed harder in the last 20 metres and was now racing against the clock as the stadium roared when the clock stopped at 10.08.

He recorded the best time beating all the juniors and the seniors, including Zimbabwean Olympian, Ngoni Mukusha who recorded 10.40 in his heat.

Tebogo said the race was his first 100 metres of the season and was also surprised by the 10.08.

“I came here to feel my body and see what I can do in my 100 metres season opener. Honestly, I don’t know where this time came from but I am happy because last week I did not start my race since I was disqualified,” he said.

Monaiwa on the other hand said he started training in November, his main mission in the competition being to analyse where he stood and if there was any area that needed to be corrected in his quest to qualify for major events.

He said he was happy with his performance and was not far in qualifying for the World Championships given that he missed with only 27 centimeters to hit the qualifying mark.

Meanwhile, in the women’s 100 metre race, Tsaone Sebele finished first with a time of 11.43, Oarabile Tshosa second with 11.50 and Moni Sanane recorded 12.96 to claim the third position.

In the men’s 400 metres, Anthony Pesela recorded 46.42, followed by Tsaone Motona with 48.55, while Pako Seribe clocked 48.91 to claim position three. Ends