By Mitch Phillips
PARIS (Reuters) – Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo was the toast of Africa after winning the Olympic 200 metres gold on Thursday but his immediate thoughts were much closer to home as he dedicated his victory to his mother who died in May.
Tebogo became the first African to win the event when he ran 19.46 seconds to beat Americans Kenny Bednarek and a COVID-hit Noah Lyles to claim Botswana’s first Olympic gold medal and become the fifth-fastest man in history over the half-lap.
He did it wearing spikes bearing his mother’s date of birth.
“It’s basically me carrying her through every stride that I take,” Tebego told reporters. “Me, to take her, it gives me a lot of motivation.
“I didn’t want to put the date of her death, because I’ll get emotional.
“I took about a month without doing anything. It wasn’t really clicking for me that she’s really gone. For me, I have to find the reason why I started my athletics journey and why I should continue going on.
“(If she were here) I believe she could be one of the happiest people on the planet because she believed in me when I doubted myself.”
It was an historic day for Africa with the continent having four athletes in the final for the first time, after also providing two in the 100m final, where Tebogo came sixth and South Africa’s Akani Simbine was fourth.
Asked if his breakthrough performance could help him follow in the footsteps of Usain Bolt as the sport’s biggest name, he quietly shook his head.
“I can’t be the face of athletics as I’m not a loud or arrogant person like Noah,” he said.
Lyles was a hot topic in the post-race press conference, from which he was absent, after U.S. officials revealed that he had tested positive for COVID on Tuesday, two days after winning the 100 metres.
Lyles wore a face mask in the call room before the race and though Tebogo wondered why, he said he did not want to make assumptions.
Bednarek, who repeated his silver from Tokyo, was also asked about the COVID situation.
“I don’t think I was put at risk,” he said.
“When I found out, it wasn’t that big of a deal. He went out there and did his best while he was sick and I hope he gets better.”
Both men were originally expected to run in Friday’s 4x100m relay final after the U.S. qualified without them on Friday, but Bednarek said that plan might have to be re-addressed.
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Ed Osmond)
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