Letsile Tebogo Jogs 9.91 World U20 Record On Way To 100m Gold

Botswana star Letsile Tebogo smashes his world U20 100m record, clocking 9.91 (0.8m/s) to retain his title, at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia on Tuesday August 2.

The 19-year-old, who had set the world U20 record of 9.94 secs at the recent World Championships in Oregon, was in his usual element. A bullet started left the field trailing and the teenager striding away to the title.

By mid-race Tebogo was in full control and with 30m to go he raised his right hand and began wagging a finger at his nearest rival, Bouwahjgie Nkrumie of Jamaica all the way to the finish. 

Nkrumie grabbed silver in 10.02 while South Africa’s Benjamin Richardson clocked 10.12 to snatch the bronze medal by one-thousandth of a second from Thailand’s Puripol Bonsoon, who was also timed at 10.12 in fourth.

“I saw they were scared of me, but I was also scared of them,” said Tebogo after the race when asked why the early celebration.

“When the gun went off I had to make sure I made the best start of my life and it was the best start of my life. I didn’t plan (the celebration) but as soon as my first step I knew the title was mine. I didn’t worry about the time. I didn’t look.”

Asked by journalists what he could have run if he went all out, Tebogo said as a matter of fact: “9.80.”

“We have more races to come, we didn’t want to go that far,” said Tebogo, who will enrol at the University of Oregon in the months ahead. “But this is my year as a junior, we have to leave (the record) here for the next generation to come and break it.”