Botswana's Tebogo humbles showman Lyles to win 200m gold

Tebogo's winning time was 19 minutes and 46 seconds - a new African record - and well good enough to stroll to the finish line while thumping his chest from about 10 metres out - a dedication to his mother who passed on in May.

OLYMPICS | Botswana's Letsile Tebogo was in his own track as he left his apparent competitors in his wake to storm to the 200m gold at the Paris 2024 Games.

Tebogo's winning time was 19 minutes and 46 seconds - a new African record - and well good enough to stroll to the finish line while thumping his chest from about 10 metres out - a dedication to his mother who passed on in May.

Before the final, Tebogo said he was going to do this for her. He has done that.

It is a first Olympic gold of all time for Botswana.

Lyles, introduced last, could as well have exhausted himself in pre-race showmanship as he jumped and screamed his lungs out and if he thought the semifinal defeat to Tebogo was a fluke, what happened from Lane 7 was the shock he probably saw coming but refused to accept until it was all over.

Lyles was on his back on the purple tartan and had to be wheeled away afterwards.

The US Track and Field revealed immediately after the race that bronze medallist Lyles has Covid.

He crossed the line in 19.70 seconds, a time no unfit person would run and the man who came to Paris to claim four gold medals will rue the respiratory virus but also understand that Tebogo fully deserved this one.