Tebogo becomes Botswana's first Olympic champion with 200m win
TLDR
- Letsile Tebogo wins Botswana's and Africa's first Olympic gold medal in the 200 meters with a record time of 19.46 seconds.
- USA's Kenny Bednarek takes silver, while Noah Lyles claims bronze in the historic 200m final at Paris 2024 Olympics.
- Zimbabwe's Tapiwanashe Makarawu and Makanakaishe Charamba make history by being the first Zimbabwean sprinters in an Olympic 200m final and finish sixth and eighth, respectively.
Letsile Tebogo made history for Botswana and Africa at the Paris 2024 Olympics on Thursday, winning the first Olympic gold medal for his nation in any sport and Africa's first in the 200 meters.
Tebogo stormed to victory with an African record of 19.46 seconds, becoming the fifth fastest man in history over the distance. He held off the USA’s Kenny Bednarek, who took silver with a time of 19.62 seconds, and 100m champion Noah Lyles, who claimed bronze in 19.70 seconds.
Erriyon Knighton, a two-time world medalist from the US, finished fourth in 19.99 seconds. Zimbabwe’s Tapiwanashe Makarawu and Makanakaishe Charamba made history as the first two Zimbabwean sprinters in an Olympic 200m final, finishing sixth and eighth, respectively. They were separated by Liberia’s Joseph Fahnbulleh, who came seventh, and Dominican Republic's Alexander Ogando, who finished fifth.
Key Takeaways
This victory brings Africa's medal count at the 2024 Olympics to five - Moroccan runner Sofiane Bakkali won gold in the men's 3,000m steeplechase, Kenyans Beatrice Chebet and Faith Kipyegon won gold and silver in the women's 5,000m race respectively, and Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei won gold in the men's 10,000m race. Tebogo, who finished sixth in the 100m final, adds his Olympic gold to the two world medals he won last year in Budapest—100m silver and 200m bronze. His success at the senior level follows an impressive run at the World U20 Championships, where he claimed 100m gold and 200m silver in both 2021 and 2022. Tebogo's rise continues to solidify his place as one of Africa's most promising sprinters on the global stage.
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