Letsile Tebogo amazes home crowed with impressive 200m win Gaborone

Reigning world junior 100 metres champion Letsile Tebogo improved his PB to 19.87 into a slight headwind of -0.3 m/s to win the 200 metres in front of his home fans in the final individual race at the Botswana Golden Grand Prix in Gaborone, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold. Tebogo took his previous PB of 19.96 that he set when he won the world under 20 silver medal in Cali last August.

Tebogo beat world 4×100 champion Aaron Brown (20”00) and Olympic and world finalist Joseph Fahnbulleh (20.14). Canadian André De Grasse finished a distant seventh in 20.41.

Tebogo started his season with 20.00 in his seasonal debut in Miramar a few weeks ago.

“In the 200 metres my body was not responding, but I am proud of it because it shows me that I can keep pushing forward. At the curve, I was neck-to-neck with Aaron Brown, but in the last 50 metres I had one last kick and I managed to finish the race. I am really happy for the crowd, because it shows that Botswana people love sport. They should always come in numbers, so they can make the sport grow”, said Tebogo.

Men’s 100 metres:

Earlier in the program African 100 metres record holder Ferdinand Omanyala won the men’s 100 metres in a wind-assisted 9.78 (+2.3 m/s) ahead of Tebogo (9.91). Olympic and world 200m semifinalist Kenny Bednarek placed third in 10.02 in his first 100 metres of the season.

Kenya’s Samuel Imeta won the B race in 10.10.

Ferdinand Omanyala: “My main target is to become the African man the World Championships in the 100 metres. Training has gone so well. This year started well with the indoor season in France, where I performed well and just broke two national records within a week. After the indoor tour, we went into one month of training without competing, then came back in March and ran three sub-10 times in two days. It is an indication that the indoor season helped”.

Men’s 400 metres:

Twenty-year-old Muzala Samukonga dipped under the 44 seconds barrier for the first time in his career to win the men’s 400 metres in a world-leading time of 43.91. The Zambian athlete moves into the top 20 in the all-time list. Samukonga won the Commonwealth Games gold medal in 44.66 last August.

Samukonga becomes the third African sprinter in history behind world record holder Wayde Van Niekerk (43.03) and Isaac Makwala (43.72). Former world and Olympic Kirani James and Botswana’s Leungo Scotch also dipped under the 45 seconds barrier with 44.76 and 44.92.

Women’s 100 metres:

Women’s…