Letsile Tebogo: young Rising 100m/200m star draws Usain Bolt comparisons after setting records.
Channel: SPORTS CIRCLE TV
Date: 2023-03-22

NLetsile Tebogo: young Rising 100m/200m star draws Usain Bolt comparisons after setting records. 
Botswana's rising sprint star smashed his own Under-20 world record clocking 9.91 in the 100m on Tuesday evening (2 August) on his way to winning gold at the 2022 World Athletics U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia.

The 19-year-old could have gone even faster but was coasting through the final 20m, immediately drawing comparisons to Jamaican track legend Usain Bolt who celebrated early when he won the first of his eight Olympic gold medals at Beijing 2008 in a then world record time of 9.69 seconds.

"The statement was to come out and enjoy the race. If somebody took it as disrespect, I'm really sorry," said Tebogo to World Athletics.

He wanted to remind everyone watching at home "what Usain Bolt did back in the day".

"He is my idol, the person I look up to."
Could he have run faster? Absolutely. Tebogo thinks that a 9.80 would have been realistic.

"We have more races to come, we did not want to go that far," said Tebogo. "This is my year as a junior, we have to leave (the record) here for the next generation to come and break it."

Tebogo had improved the U20 world record to 9.94 in the heats of the senior World Championships last month in Eugene, after he had set the mark at 9.96 on 30 April at the Gaborone International Meet.

At the 2021 World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya, he became the first athlete from Botswana to win gold in the 100m on a global stage. He also picked up a silver in the 200m.

Tebogo is expected to be one of the names to watch at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Let's take a closer look at the talented African sprinter