By C. J. De Mel, Jadetimes News
At the 2024 Olympics, there was a turn of events in Paris as Letsile Tebogo from Botswana captured the gold medal in the 200m, breaking the African record in 19.46 seconds. This victory sealed Botswana's first-ever Olympic gold and deprived American sprinter Noah Lyles of the 100m-200m double. Lyles, who had earlier taken gold in the keenly contested 100m final, finished third in the 200m in 19.70 seconds to equal his bronze from the Tokyo 2020 Games.
However, it was the remarkable display of his huge potential in the 21-year-old Tebogo that put up a challenge at the global stage ahead of his top-ranked competitors. Kenneth Bednarek of the United States took the silver in 19.62 seconds, also his position in Tokyo.
Lyles had been the huge favorite going into this one, but he ultimately suffered a poor start and a positive Covid-19 test, which meant he had to be helped off the track at the end. His dynamic entrance and theatrics got the Stade de France crowd up on their feet, but he failed to deliver anything like his customary world-beating form.
The win was an emotionally charged one for Tebogo, as he declared that he was dedicating the victory to his mother, Seratiwa, who died in May. He held up his spikes with her birth date inscribed and added, "It's basically me carrying her through every stride that I take inside the field. She's watching up there, and she's really, really happy."
The victory put the lid on Lyles' 26-race winning streak over the 200m, etching Tebogo as the new star in world athletics. Despite what the 200m three-time world champion Lyles had wanted to do—to emulate Usain Bolt's historic sprint double—his name will now feature in recovery books as he ponders his participation in the relay events at the Paris Games.
