Letsile Tebogo continued with his brilliant form when he stamped yet another ticket to Budapest World Athletics Championships in the men’s 400m.
During the Meeting Internazionale Sport Solidarieta in Italy yesterday, the World Under-20 100m record holder qualified for the 400m when stopped the clock at 44.75 setting a Personal Best (PB) which was previously at 46.09. Tebogo’s coach, Kebonyamodisa Dose Mosimanyane told Mmegi Online that the 400m was preparations for the 200m.
“He has qualified yes, but he will only be running 100m and 200m in Budapest. The 400m race was just to fix the 200m. He is far from running 400m at the World Athletics Championships,” he said. Mosimanyane said on July 21, Tebogo will race in the 100m at the Monaco Diamond League followed by 200m at the London Diamond League. He said from there, they will pause all activities and wait for the World Athletics Championships. Meanwhile, the women’s 4x400m relay team will get the last opportunity to qualify for the Budapest this coming Thursday.
Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) has invited countries from the region for a relays championship meant to assist teams to qualify. The team was displaced from the top 16 rankings by Nigeria yesterday. Botswana had registered a time of 3:28.79 during the Kenya national championships last month.
Nigeria displaced Botswana and qualified by posting 3:27.60s. Nigeria is now in position 13 behind Germany. BAA vice president- administration, Oabona Theetso said it is unfortunate that the team is now under pressure, being forced to qualify at the last minute. “The team should have been given a chance to compete at the Kenya trials this past weekend. They could be safe as we speak but things did not go according to plan due to lack of funds. We have organised an event to give them the last opportunity to qualify,” he said.
Theetso said by Friday, some countries had confirmed participation. The closing date for the relays qualifications is July 20 and the team is expected to pull out a massive 3:26.00. The team comprises of Lydia Jele, Thomphang Basele, Obakeng Kamberuka, Golekanye Chikane and Motlatsi Rante.
