"In the final strait, Collen Kebinatshipi surged past South Africa's Zakithi Nene to win the men's 4x400m relay for Botswana. The home crowd, a sea of light blue, went wild. It means so many things to us, Letsile Tebogo, 22, the reigning 200m Olympic champion, who ran the second leg, told reporters afterwards. Not just the team but for the people that always cheer for us behind the TV. Now they had that experience to see first-hand how much effort, how much pressure, how much we give for them."
"In an interview after the championships, the World Athletics president, Sebastian Coe, said: I put that atmosphere in the top three that I've experienced live in athletics. The first was Cathy Freeman winning in Sydney. The second was Mo Farah hitting the front with a lap or so to go in the 10,000 in London, when the wall of noise was deafening [This] comfortably sits in the top three for me."
"Botswana, a country larger by area than Spain with a population of just 2.5 million, has had a meteoric rise to the top of men's sprinting. Tebogo's Olympic gold in Paris in 2024 was the country's first, and only its fourth medal of any colour. The men's 4x400m relay team took silver, improving on bronze from three years earlier. Then, at the world championships in Tokyo last year, Kebinatshipi won the 400m while the relay team he anchored also took home gold."
"The athletes are superstars in Botswana, their faces plastered on billboards advertising everything from mobile phone contracts to milk. My life has changed a lot, Kebinatshipi told a press conference before the relays. Collen Kebinatshipi celebrates after winning gold in the men's 400m at the World Athletics Championships."
Botswana won the men’s 4x400m relay at the World Athletics Relays in Gaborone. Collen Kebinatshipi surged past South Africa’s Zakithi Nene in the final stretch to secure gold for Botswana. Letsile Tebogo, the reigning 200m Olympic champion, ran the second leg and described the win as meaningful for the team and for supporters watching behind television. The atmosphere was praised by World Athletics president Sebastian Coe, who placed it among the top live athletics atmospheres he has experienced. Botswana’s rise in men’s sprinting includes Tebogo’s Olympic gold in 2024 and relay success at world championships, with athletes becoming prominent public figures.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]