Gaborone gold rush: how Botswana rose to the top of men’s sprinting
Country with a population of just 2.5m credits investment in young athletes for its rise but this progress is under threat
It was a fairytale ending to the World Athletics Relays in Gaborone. In the final strait, Collen Kebinatshipi surged past South Africa’s Zakithi Nene to win the men’s 4x400m relay for Botswana. The home crowd, a sea of light blue, went wild.
“It means so many things to us,” Letsile Tebogo, 22, the reigning 200m Olympic champion, who ran the second leg, told reporters afterwards. “Not just the team … but for the people that always cheer for us behind the TV. Now they had that experience to see first-hand how much effort, how much pressure, how much we give for them.”
Collen Kebinatshipi’s surge past Zakithi Nene in the final straight was incredible—what a moment for a country of just 2.5 million people.
Letsile Tebogo is right: that home crowd in Gaborone must have been electric. Seeing them win the 4x400m relay live is something special.
I hope Botswana keeps investing in young athletes. It’s working, but threats to that funding could undo all this progress.
How did a nation with 2.5 million people produce Olympic champs like Tebogo? They’re doing something right that bigger countries aren’t.
The fairytale ending at the World Athletics Relays shows what grassroots investment can do. But will Botswana sustain it?
That 4x400m relay win was for everyone who cheered from behind the TV, as Tebogo said. Proud moment for all Batswana.