07 Aug 2022

Batswana were on Friday left devastated after Israel’s Blessing Afrifah ‘stole’ a gold medal from Letsile Tebogo in six thousandths of a second at the World Junior Championships in Columbia. Both athletes clocked a championship record of 19.96  in the 200m final, but the title was given to Afrifah as he managed to dip first at the finish line.

It was a bitter pill to swallow for Batswana as the situation reminded them of the 2013 World Championships when Amantle Montsho was shoulder to shoulder with Great Britain’s Christine Ohuruogu, registering a similar time of 49.41, but the latter managed to deep at the finish line to relegate Montsho to the second position.

Immediately after the Friday final, social media erupted into debate on why Afrifah was given the title.

Others were of the view that Tebogo had crossed the finish line first saying his leg was more visible compared to his opponent. However, track and field guru, Thomas Ndazila, said in an interview that the times were recorded to two decimal places and a third digit would be looked into whenever there was a tie. “That’s why the two athletes were differentiated by six thousandths of a second. It means Afrifah’s next third digit after a point is smaller than Tebogo’s. That is how it is done. Tebogo was disadvantaged by not dipping at the finish line.

The results are not determined via the legs in the finish line, but the torso.  When you deep, in means you are pushing your torso forward, unlike the athlete who finish the race straight,” he explained. On one hand, Sunday Standard sport editor, Botlhale Koothopile, who has been following the competition said 200m was not as easy as people might think.

“Given that it has all the elements of a 400m race, there needs to be a plan to run it. Be quick off the blocks, run the bend well, speed up in the next 50m or 60m in the home straight to gain momentum before deceleration happens in the last 40m,” he said.

Koothopile said running the bend well was crucial, adding Tebogo was slower on the bend and was behind his competitors.

“Past the bend, he accelerated faster and took the lead. However, he had burnt a lot of energy in the process and thus he decelerated faster in the last 40m.  This is where the eventual winner finally piped him to the finish line by a hairline time difference,” he said.

Meanwhile, it was not a good day for Team Botswana as the 4x100 relay team was disqualified for violating rule 24.19, which does not permit athletes to run outside their takeover zones.

Collen Kebinatshipi (400m) who had finished on position four in 45.92 was also disqualified for lane infringement. ENDS