Botswana’s lightning Bolt strikes three times
Mqondisi Dube | Saturday August 6, 2022 06:00
Not since the days of an effervescent, all-conquering Jamaican christened Usain Bolt, has the world witnessed such arrogance on the track.
Bolt conquered in almost every corner of the world, winning countless major titles in a career spanning nearly two decades.
The gangly Bolt is regarded as the greatest ever to lace up a pair of spikes and holds the 100m and 200m records. In the 100m, he has an astonishing time of 9.58 set during the 2009 World Championships held in Berlin, Germany.
During the record-breaking feat, Bolt was captured doing an average ground speed of 37.58km/hr while hitting a top speed of 44.72/km/h between the 60-80km stretch.
The record has been intact for the last 13 years and remains largely untroubled as the next best time is 9.69, held by Tyson Gay and Yohan Blake.
However, there is growing optimism, driven by a 19-year-old fresh-faced Kanye lad, that the mark can be eclipsed in the not-so-distant future.
Tebogo, who admits to modelling his game around Bolt’s style of running, has emerged as one of the young hungry lions ready to defang the world record. While he is still a distance off Bolt’s mark, Tebogo has served up an un-ignorable statement of intent, subsequently drawing comparisons with the great Jamaican.
Tebogo has had to endure frustration early on in his brief but burgeoning career. World Athletics chose to ignore his early warning after he smashed the world junior record at the Gaborone International Meet in April. The world athletics governing body cited failure to perform a zero-gun test before the race as the reason for rejecting the 9.96 that Tebogo registered. Shattered but unfazed, Tebogo took the long flight across the Atlantic Ocean to make amends in the full glare of world television cameras. In Oregon, the United States, Tebogo ran what was then the race of his life as he showed amongst others, Blake and Akani Simbine a clean pair of heels on his way to officially smashing the junior world 100m record in the heats.
He registered a time of 9.94, bettering his own nullified record of 9.96 while surpassing the official mark of 9.97 set by American, Trayvon Bromell in 2014. It felt like sweet revenge for Tebogo who had been denied the record by World Athletics, only for the Botswana athlete to fly to the US and crush the mark in Bromell’s backyard.
While Tebogo suffered the disappointment of not reaching the finals of the World Championships in Oregon, he had already given the athletics world a lot to ponder on his debut.
Straight from Oregon was another assignment at the World Junior Championships that are being held in Cali, Columbia. After making his mark in Africa and North America, Tebogo’s World Junior Championships trip took him to a third different continent as he touched down in South America’s Columbia eager to enhance his ballooning reputation. “If another opportunity to break the record presents itself, I will go for it,” he said before his races in Columbia. And he did not waste time as he smashed the championship record in the 100m heats, setting a new time of 10.00.
Tebogo went into the finals as the defending champion after winning the title in Nairobi, Kenya last year in August.
While the majority of sub-Saharan Africa was in deep slumber, Batswana who stayed up late and athletics enthusiasts gathered at the Estadio Olimpico Pascual, were treated to some fast and furious running by Botswana’s rapid whirlwind.
Tebogo stamped his authority straight off the starter blocks and kept pulling away from the chasing pack. He even had the luxury – and temerity – to wag his finger at his Jamaican opponent, Bouwahjgie Nkrumie around 20 metres to the finish line, as the engines of the rest of the field’s engines sputtered. Despite decelerating considerably towards the end, Tebogo was still good enough to set a new world record. He bettered his own 100m record twice in the last two weeks. The national 100m record has been battered several times by the same man since February last year.
What makes Tebogo’s world record-breaking feat special, is that it has been achieved on three different continents, as Botswana unleashes its own lightning bolt. Bolt is alive to the threat Tebogo poses to his long-standing 100m record.
The Botswana star said he did not mean to offend anyone with his theatrics towards the finish line. “The statement was to come out and enjoy the race,” he said. “If somebody took it as disrespect, I’m really sorry.”
“I saw the fans and everybody watching at home can enjoy the race – to remind them a little bit about what Usain Bolt did back in the days. He’s my idol – the person I look up to,” he told reporters after the race.