23 Apr 2024

The 200m event made people to question the criteria that was used to separate Letsile Tebogo and American Lindsey Cortney at the Kip Keino World Continental Tour held in Nairobi, Kenya on Saturday. 

Both athletes tied with a time of 19.71 but Cortney was given position one while Tebogo was relegated to position two. 

This is not the first time the ordeal happened to Tebogo. 

In the 2022 World Athletics U20 Championships, held in Cali, Colombia.

Tebogo was tied with Israel’s Blessing Afrifah in the 200m final at 19.96 but it was the latter who was awarded a gold medal by six thousandths of a second. The Saturday event did not go well with local fans who questioned that since it was a tie, couldnt there be a rerun, or perhaps have the athletes share the same position rather than relegate Tebogo to second position. 

According to World Athletics guidelines, the first position is awarded to the athlete who dips his torso first. 

The guideline stipulates that the exact location of the border line between the upper arm-shoulder and the ‘torso’ will vary depending on the development of the upper body of an individual athlete and will not therefore be totally consistent. 

It says based on anatomy, the endpoint of the torso is the outer end/articulation of the collarbone (clavicle). 

However, Tebogo’s coach, Kebonyemodisa Mosimanyane is unfazed by the tie, but had mixed feelings with the time the athlete dropped in his 200m race.  “19.71 in his second 200m race is fast and I am just hoping that the next 200m race will show us proper direction,” he said. He said he was not worried about the tie or Tebogo finishing in position two, given that he knew where they were in the programme. 

“As the season progresses there is still room for improvement and the 19.71 time can be maintained and taken into the Diamond League season when it starts,” he said. He said the time he clocked was not a peak performance time as they had not added a lot of things in their programme. ENDS