1 month ago
103
Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo and Team USA’s Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone lit up the Stade de France stadium at Paris Olympics 2024 in the track and field arena on Thursday, 8 August.
Botswana’s first gold
Letsile Tebogo of Team Botswana crosses the finish line to win the gold medal in the Men’s 200m Final on day thirteen of Olympics 2024 on 8 August 2024 in Paris. (Photo: Andy Cheung/Getty Images)
Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo created history early when he won Botswana’s first ever Olympic gold medal and the first ever gold medal in the 200m sprints by an African athlete.
Tebogo clocked in at 19.46sec, despite easing up with around 15m to the finish line, with the fifth-fastest time in 200m history.
Tebogo was out of the blocks at express speed and just continued to accelerate. He had the US’s Kenny Bednarek for company outside him, but once he got into his stride in the home straight he tore away from the pack.
Read more: Olympic Games Paris 2024 hub
Bednarek claimed the silver medal, as he did in Tokyo in 19.62secs. The 100m Olympic champion and favourite to claim gold, Noah Lyles, was third, also the same placing as in the previous Games, in 19.70secs.
Letsile Tebogo of Botswana crosses the finish line to win the gold in the Men’s 200m Final on 8 August 2024 in Paris. (Photo: Andy Cheung/Getty Images)
Lyles stayed seated for an extended period after the race and seemed to struggle to breathe. It was later revealed by USA Track and Field that Lyles was diagnosed with Covid-19 on Tuesday, but still opted to run.
Lyles was eventually helped off the track by wheelchair with the assistance of medics on hand.
McLauglin-Levrone’s championship credentials
Gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of Team USA crosses the finish line with a new world record in the Women’s 400m Hurdles Final on day thirteen of the Olympic Games on 8 August, 2024 in Paris. (Photo: Andy Cheung/Getty Images)
One of the most highly anticipated contests of the Olympic Games turned into a one-horse race. Even though Team USA’s McLaughlin-Levrone and Dutch athlete Femke Bol rank as two of the greatest athletes of all time in the event, McLaughlin-Levrone proved that she remains in a league of her own.
McLaughlin-Levrone broke her own 400m hurdles world record for the third time, to claim victory in the event in consecutive Olympic Games.
Read more: Fast track to glory — enigmatic Noah Lyles saves his greatest performances for the brightest lights
McLaughlin-Levrone dashed through comfortably, with a massive gap between herself and second place in a time of 50.37sec, with her main rival, Bol in the lane next to her.
The track sensation improved on her previous best time, and the world record of 50.65sec she set at the US Olympic trials at the end of June.
Bronze medalist Femke Bol of the Netherlands competes in the Women’s 400m Hurdles Final on day thirteen of the Olympic Games 2024 at Stade de France on 8 August, 2024. (Photo: Andy Cheung/Getty Images)
It’s the sixth time that McLaughlin-Levrone has broken her own world record.
The run in the final in Paris on Thursday evening looked like a casual jog for McLaughlin-Levrone, who barely had any strain on her face as she leapt over each hurdle gracefully.
Bol was expected to put the most pressure on McLaughlin-Levrone, but it was the other way around as the US superstar snuck up to Bol within the first two hurdles.
Bol, who made it through to the final without being pushed in the heats or semifinal, almost immediately felt McLaughlin-Levrone next to her as the American ate up the ground once the gun went off.
Bol seemed to tense up, and struggled to get into her stride from the off.
Instead, it was Anna Cockrell of Team USA who came through strongly on the home straight and overtook Bol, to take a surprise silver medal in 51.87sec — more than a second slower than McLaughlin-Levrone.
A visibly disappointed Bol, who sobbed on her parents’ shoulders, took bronze again, as she did in Tokyo three years ago. DM
