Botswana athlete storms to African record of 19.46 ahead of Kenny Bednarek, a Covid-hit Noah Lyles and Erriyon Knighton
Letsile Tebogo ruined American hopes of a clean sweep in the men’s 200m in Paris on Thursday (Aug 8) when the Botswana sprinter clocked 19.46 (0.4) to beat the US trio in style.
It was Botswana’s first ever Olympic gold as Kenny Bednarek took silver in 19.62, Noah Lyles bronze in 19.70 and Erriyon Knighton was fourth in 19.99 with the Americans filling the three places behind Tebogo.
Soon after, the US team confirmed Lyles was racing despite testing positive for Covid a couple of days earlier.
Lyles later said: “I do have Covid. I tested positive around 5am on Tuesday morning. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling real chills, aching, sore throat.”
Tebogo said: “Personally I don’t think we were at risk because it’s not a contact sport. Even during warm-ups and in the call room he was just there by himself. I just thought he wasn’t having a great day so I didn’t think of Covid or anything else.”
Letsile Tebogo (Getty)
Tebogo, 21, won world 100m silver and 200m bronze in Budapest last year, but he was a clear winner in Paris over 200m after having placed sixth in the 100m earlier in the Games.
Leading off the bend and followed by Bednarek, Lyles was in third place and had too much work to do.
Did the illness affect him? “I’ve had better days,” said Lyles, “but I’m walking around again. I was quite light-headed after that race. Shortness of breath, chest pain, but after a while I could catch my breath and get my wits about me.
“It definitely affected my performance. I’ve had to take a lot of breaks. I was coughing through the night. I’m more proud of myself than anything, coming out here to get a bronze with Covid.”
On Tebogo’s win, Bednarek said: “I think he had a perfect race. I’ve never seen him get out of the curve like that before. He had the better execution and it’s no surprise as we’ve seen what he’s been able to do before. So congrats to him.”
Certainly this victory was not a big surprise given Tebogo’s rise through the sprint ranks. In 2021 and 2022, for example, he won the world under-20 titles at 100m.
Looking ahead, will Lyles run the 4x100m final on Friday?
“We haven’t decided yet,” said Lyles. “I’m going to talk to the 4x100m crew. I’m going to be very honest and transparent with the coaches and I’ll let them make the decision. No matter what happens, this 4x100m team can handle everything.”
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