With the curtains drawn on the 2025 World Athletics Championships, Olympic 200m champion, Letsile Tebogo has said it is now time for him to rest and recharge for the next season.
Tebogo entered the championships amidst high expectations. However ‘lady luck’ was not with the world male athlete of the year, as his performance in individual races did not deliver as expected. He was disqualified from the men’s 100m final after a false start. Aiming to redeem himself in his preferred 200m, Tebogo still could not find the click as he missed out on a podium finish. At the last championships in Budapest in 2023, Tebogo scooped a silver medal in the 100m and settled for bronze in the 200m. However, the talented sprinter, who is the first ever-African athlete to be an Olympic champion in the 200m, did not return home empty handed. He ran the fastest split to help the team win Africa’s first ever 4x400m gold medal .
Now that Tokyo championships are behind him, the Olympic champion said his focus would now be on recuperating.
“I think for now what’s next for me is to go home and rest (and) hopefully start training for the next couple of months. So we will start again then and see what to do,” Tebogo said upon arrival at the Sir Seretse Khama on Tuesday afternoon. He also took time to dismiss suggestions that he should drop the 100m for the 400m. “I will never develop a 400m need. It is just a practical rule that I like to do to challenge the body because I do not want to limit myself to the 100m or the 200m so I like challenges,” Tebogo said. He even jokingly said that people might see him trying out the 800m to test his body. Meanwhile the rest of the athletes arrive from Tokyo tomorrow.
