After lighting up SA tracks, Letsile Tebogo shifts focus to Paris Olympics

After experimenting over longer distances in the early stages of the season, Letsile Tebogo of Botswana says he will now shift his focus to his specialist events as he focuses on chasing double gold at the Olympic Games in Paris later this year.

Tebogo, who was based in Potchefstroom during the off-season, has made a massive impact on the international circuit over the last couple of years, grabbing 100m silver and 200m bronze at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest last season.

The 20-year-old sprinter turned out in two local races in recent weeks. First he set a world best of 30.69 seconds over the unofficial 300m distance at the Backtrack Classic Shootout in Pretoria last month, breaking Wayde van Niekerk’s global mark of 30.81, and then he clocked a 400m personal best of 44.29 at the ASA Grand Prix, also held in the capital city, on Monday night.

More in the tank

Though he clearly pushed hard, and took some time to recover on the side of the track before he could conduct interviews, Tebogo insisted he could have gone quicker at the Grand Prix meeting after easing up before the finish line.

“I wasn’t tired. There’s more than what I did today. It’s just that we don’t want to bring it up this early in the season,” he said after the second 400m race of his senior career.

Tebogo confirmed he would return to shorter distances for the rest of the year, with his sights set on Olympic glory.

“We’ll go back to the drawing board and analyse the video, but I think this will be my last 400m race until further notice,” he said.

“For now we’ll rest a bit and get the body back to zero, and then try a different approach for the DIamond Leagues and the Olympics.”

However, while he was not expected to race over 400m again this year, Tebogo said he could return to the one-lap event later in his career.

“We’ll sit down and plan and see how things go, but if we can accomplish the goals we have set in the 100m and 200m, I think we’ll shift the focus to the 400m.”