03 May 2022

It may have looked simple for Letsile Tebogo taking to the track at the National Stadium during the Gaborone International Meet on April 30. Less than 10 seconds, he was done.

Having clocked 9.96, smashing the 9.97 World Under 20 100m record set by American Trayvon Bromell in Oregon in 2014, Tebogo simply jumped into the league of the best of the best.

He became Botswana’s first athlete to run sub 10. This also qualified him for the World Athletics Championship slated for Oregon, USA from July 15 to 24.

However, a lot happened behind the scenes to get the best out of Tebogo. Credit goes to his coach, Dose Mosimanyane and to some extent the crowd that cheered him hours before the race started.

While Mosimanyane advised him not to put himself under pressure, Tebogo had a different mind, probably something akin to what the cheering crowd engendered in his mind when they cheered him and shouted sub 10. All these combined seemed to egg him on to renege on his deal with Mosimanyane.

Eager to get the real sense and appreciate what Tebogo and his coach went through before the race that day, BOPA decided to follow the duo throughout the day. First, when the Kanye born lad entered the stadium, apparently to watch other races, spectators spotted him and immediately chanted ‘sub 10!’

Realising that would put him under pressure, the coach immediately whisked him away.

Mosimanyane confirmed that they took a drive around Gaborone to ease the pressure. Arriving from the drive, Tebogo shot straight to Lekidi for warm up. Only the athletes and their coaches were allowed in.

During the warm up, it was not easy to imagine Tebogo coming up tops. He looked calm going through his paces. Time for call room came and as usual he was the quite one while other athletes were teasing each other and speculating who would be the winner of the race.

Tebogo would unassumingly take the risk of lining up in the senior category.

As he entered the stadium, now for big business, the spectators could not help, but cheered him as if he had already won the race.
He stood akimbo on lane five, head bowed down, probably shying away from the eyes of spectators who were eager to see him to fly on the track.

The starting gun went off, and Tebogo kicked off from the blocks well composed and with only 50 metres remaining it was clear that he was about to run a sub 10.

He slowed down as he reached the finish line and would later on during the interview say that his coach had given him strict instruction to run 10.00 or 10.02 for now, not sub 10.

Nonetheless, he said he was happy with his time, given that he had been preparing well for the meet. Qualifying for the World Championship, he added, was the icing on the cake.

On one hand, Mosimanyane said during their drive around Gaborone, he had a conversation with Tebogo whereupon he impressed upon him that there was no need for him to win the race given that he was competing with seniors and he would be learning from them.

“I told him to enjoy the race and forget the fact that all eyes were on him and I told him that we should stick to 10.00 or 10.01 just to keep active for the season as we prepare for the World Junior Championships,” said Mosimanyane.

The coach said he did not want to rush the athlete to run sub 10, noting that if he found himself leading, he should upon winning the race just stick to their agreement.

“But he defied me and ran sub 10, what can we do, if the time has come, who can stop it, congratulations to him, for being the first Motswana to run sub 10,” he said.

On position two were South Africans, Benjamin Richardson Hendricho Bruintjies who clocked 10.08 and 10.16 respectively, with Stephen Abosi finishing fourth with 10.28.

In 100 metres classic women, Namibian Christine Mboma clocked 10.97 followed by Tsaone Sebele who clocked 11.25 while Zambian Quincy Malekani clocked 11.39.

In 100 metres men, Isaac Makwala finished third with 10.41 behind South African and Namibian Emile Erasmus and Gilbert Hainuca who registered 10.22 and 10.36 respectively. ENDS