Makwala grabs Botswana�s first gold at AAG
Kabelo Boranabi | Thursday September 17, 2015 14:04
In the absence of world champion, Wayne Van Niekerk, Makwala easily sailed through the race with minimum competition.
Standing in between Makwala and the medal was Kenyan, Boniface Mweresa and another local athlete, Onkabetse Nkobolo.
However, Africa’s second fastest man in the 400m won Botswana’s first gold medal at the games with a time of 44.35 seconds, finishing ahead of Mweresa (45:01 secs), while Nkobolo scooped third position in 45:50, giving Botswana two medals in one race.
Before the start of the race, ‘Badman’ appeared calm as if he knew the title was already in the bag. Running in fourth lane, the former African record holder did not have much to do as he crossed the finishing line relatively unchallenged.
However, this was not Makwala’s best time of the season, as he clocked the then African record with 43:72 in July in Switzerland. Meanwhile, Lydia Jele finished last in the women’s 400m final with a time of 53:85 seconds.
Sprinter Yatea Kambepera finished fifth in his 200m heat with a time of 21:74 seconds while Pako Seribe also came fifth in the other heat with a time of 21:34 seconds.
Tsaone Sebele clocked 23:86 seconds winning the women’s 200m heat.
London Olympic Games silver medalist, Nijel Amos qualified for the 800m finals with a time of 1:50:00 together with 20-year-old, Boitumelo Masilo who set a personal best of 1:46:80.
The team representing the country at the games has collected 10 medals, one gold, three silver medals and six bronze medals. Karate, swimming and athletics have been the best performing codes at the games. Amos and Masilo were in action last night.