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Botswana declared a public holiday on Friday as the sub-Saharan nation of 2.6mm people better known for its diamonds celebrated a first-ever Olympic gold medal.
Letsile Tebogo on Thursday evening became the first African to win an Olympic 200m sprint event when he stormed to victory in the final in Paris, setting a new African record of 19.46 seconds in the process. The 21-year-old, who finished sixth in the men’s 100m final earlier in the week, beat Kenny Bednarek in second and Noah Lyles in third.
Lyles of the US, the pre-race favourite who won gold in the 100m, was taken to the medical tent after the race suffering from laboured breathing, and told broadcaster NBC that he raced with Covid.
Speaking to the press after his victory, Tebogo paid tribute to his late mother, Seratiwa Tebogo, who died in May and whose birth date is etched into his running shoes. “It’s basically me carrying her through every stride that I take,” he said.
Asked if his victory, his country’s first ever gold and only its third ever Olympic medal, made him a global standard-bearer for the sport, Tebogo raised eyebrows by saying: “I can’t be the face of athletics as I’m not a loud or arrogant person like Noah.”
His victory prompted celebrations in the capital Gaborone, with President Mokgweetsi Masisi declaring a public holiday on Friday afternoon to allow the country to honour “Botswana’s sensation” in a “most unique, appropriate and responsible manner”.
Botswana is better known for its diamond mining, which contributes about a third of its GDP and made it Africa’s fifth-richest nation per capita, according to the World Bank. Only Russia produces more of the precious stones.
Arno Malherbe, a former South African 400-metre champion and renowned track analyst, said Tebogo’s victory was the culmination of two decades of development in the landlocked country.
“Botswana has actually been delivering very good sprinters for the last 20-years, which is a consequence of the focus it has put on this. But even within that, Tebogo is a once-in-a-generation talent,” he said.
Malherbe said the creation of a number of sports science institutes in the southern African region had paid dividends, with a number of sub-Saharan countries achieving their best Olympic sprinting results.
Zimbabwe’s Tapiwanashe Makarawu came sixth in the 200m final won by Tebogo, while Makanakaishe Charamba was eighth. South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk, who won the 400m event at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and Shaun Maswangayi, also competed in the event, but did not make the medal race. South Africa’s Akani Simbine finished fourth in the 100m final.
Their achievements raise the prospect of southern African countries emulating the likes of Jamaica, which have long been a force in sprinting, and Kenya, which dominates longer-distance races.
“Olympic golds aren’t easy to get, and African countries have less money to spend on sports development than a country like Italy, for example, as this money needs to go to other socio-economic priorities,” said Malherbe.
Nonetheless, he welcomed the fact that African nations were placing more importance on sports development.
“Success begets success. I was the first South African 400m runner to run under 45-seconds but almost immediately after I did it, a bunch of other guys did it too,” he said.
“In future, you can expect many others from the region to follow Tebogo.”
Tebogo’s gold medal puts Botswana 53rd in this year’s Olympic medal table, ahead of a host of larger countries including Mexico, Turkey and India.
Additional reporting by Sara Germano in Paris. Data visualisation by Samira Chowdhury in London
This article has been corrected to make clear that Letsile Tebogo is the first African to win an Olympic 200m final but not the continent’s first sprint gold medalist