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Letsile Tebogo’s coach has shared how he knew the sprinter would not medal in 100m at Paris Olympic even before the Games due to a saddening moment in the athlete’s life.
Letsile Tebogo’s coach Kebonyemodisa Mosimanyane has admitted that the death of the sprinter’s mother affected his 100m medal prospects at the Paris Olympics.
Tebogo’s mother Seratiwa passed away in May when the 21-year-old was preparing for the Olympics, looking to medal in both the 100m and 200m after doing the same at the 2023 World Championships. Tebogo had won silver in 100m and bronze in 200m at the 2023 Worlds.
A distraught Tebogo took three weeks off from his training programme to mourn and cope with the untimely demise of his mum and Mosimanyane says after that absence, he knew his prodigy would struggle in the 100m at the Olympics as it is the time he wanted to work on some specific details for the race.
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“Again, we all know how he performed in 100m shattering his World Junior Record, which still stands,” Mosimanyane told the media, as quoted by Botswana Daily News.
“For you to get the 100m medal, everything should be perfect, and it takes a lot of work.
“The time we lost 21 days due to a situation that was beyond our control was the time we knew that 100m was now out of reach,” he revealed.
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Mosimanyane said he decided to focus his training programme on the 200m once he knew 100m would be difficult and the decision paid off massively as Tebogo stunned favourite and world champion Noah Lyles to win gold, a first for Botswana, in the history of the Olympics.
“Once we knew that we cannot achieve our objective, we targeted 200m,” he added.
Tebogo shocked Lyles when he stormed to the win, in a time of 19.46 seconds, with US sprinter Kenny Bednarek grabbing silver in 19.62 seconds, while the three-time world champion settled for a disappointing bronze in a time of 19.70 seconds.
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The sprinter later anchored Team Botswana to the 4x400m relay silver medal. He had finished fifth in the 100m final, a race won by Lyles, who beat Jamaican Kishane Thompson by the slightest of margins, after both clocked 9.79, as American Fred Kerley timed 9.81 for third place.
The 21-year-old and his mother were very close, travelling together to various events, having overseen his career since he was a child.
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