{"id":61132,"date":"2024-02-17T17:42:01","date_gmt":"2024-02-17T17:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/botswana-star-breaks-waydes-world-mark-in-pretoria-praises-van-niekerk"},"modified":"2024-02-17T19:34:59","modified_gmt":"2024-02-17T19:34:59","slug":"botswana-star-breaks-waydes-world-mark-in-pretoria-praises-van-niekerk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/botswana-star-breaks-waydes-world-mark-in-pretoria-praises-van-niekerk","title":{"rendered":"Botswana star breaks Wayde’s world mark in Pretoria, praises Van Niekerk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Botswana track star Letsile Tebogo broke Wayde van Niekerk\u2019s 300m world best at Pilditch Stadium in Pretoria on Saturday afternoon, charging to victory in 30.69.<\/p>\n

Earlier Akani Simbine lowered the South African 150m mark he had shared with Anaso Jobodwana to 15.04.Tebogo, the double sprint medallist at the 2023 world championships, took more than a tenth of a second off the 30.81 mark Van Niekerk set in Ostrava in 2017.<\/p>\n

Ironically South Africa has played a role, one way or another, in the 300m best this millennium \u2014 American superstar Michael Johnson ran his 30.85 best in 2000 at Pilditch.<\/p>\n

Tebogo, who took 100m silver and 200m bronze in Budapest last year, paid tribute to Van Niekerk. \u201cHe’s a brother to me. We share the good vibes. There’s no bad energy between us.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then he added, as if addressing Van Niekerk: \u201cSo thank you for always pushing me and telling me not to belittle myself. Thank you so much, mate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old said he had yet to sit down with his coach to discuss his goals for the Paris Olympics.<\/p>\n

Tebogo is the latest athletics star from Botswana which is punching way above its weight and outperforming South Africa.<\/p>\n

Since 2019 South Africa has failed to win a single meet at four major meets \u2014 one Olympics and three world championships.<\/p>\n

Botswana, with a population of less than three million people, won three medals in that time \u2014 an Olympic relay gong and Tebogo\u2019s double.<\/p>\n

Tebogo believes South Africa should be doing better on the world stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking at the facilities that they have here, it should be an advantage to them,\u201d he said.\u201cThe facilities [in Botswana] are not as good as South Africa but we try and use what we have so that we can show the world that there’s still more in Botswana.\u201d<\/p>\n

The key to Botswana\u2019s success was that everyone in the sport, even those in different training groups, worked towards a common goal, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s because we are united… So what happens is we train together, we push each other every day so that we can succeed as one team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tebogo said South African athletes shouldn\u2019t lose hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey shouldn’t give up because we all come from different backgrounds. So it’s best to keep going because I didn’t just bloom today. It was a process from 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. Botswana track star Letsile Tebogo broke Wayde van Niekerk\u2019s 300m world best at Pilditch Stadium in Pretoria on Saturday afternoon, charging to victory in 30.69. Earlier Akani Simbine lowered the South African 150m mark he had shared with Anaso Jobodwana to 15.04.Tebogo, the double sprint medallist at the 2023 world championships, took […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":61131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-61132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nBotswana star breaks Wayde's world mark in Pretoria, praises Van Niekerk - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Botswana track star Letsile Tebogo broke Wayde van Niekerk\u2019s 300m world best at Pilditch Stadium in Pretoria on Saturday ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/botswana-star-breaks-waydes-world-mark-in-pretoria-praises-van-niekerk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Botswana star breaks Wayde's world mark in Pretoria, praises Van Niekerk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Botswana track star Letsile Tebogo broke Wayde van Niekerk\u2019s 300m world best at Pilditch Stadium in Pretoria on Saturday ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/botswana-star-breaks-waydes-world-mark-in-pretoria-praises-van-niekerk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-17T17:42:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-17T19:34:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/02\/sm_1708184999.051892.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"562\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/botswana-star-breaks-waydes-world-mark-in-pretoria-praises-van-niekerk#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/botswana-star-breaks-waydes-world-mark-in-pretoria-praises-van-niekerk\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Botswana star breaks Wayde’s world mark in Pretoria, praises Van Niekerk\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-17T17:42:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-17T19:34:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/botswana-star-breaks-waydes-world-mark-in-pretoria-praises-van-niekerk\"},\"wordCount\":420,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/botswana-star-breaks-waydes-world-mark-in-pretoria-praises-van-niekerk#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/02\/sm_1708184999.051892.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/botswana-star-breaks-waydes-world-mark-in-pretoria-praises-van-niekerk#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/botswana-star-breaks-waydes-world-mark-in-pretoria-praises-van-niekerk\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/botswana-star-breaks-waydes-world-mark-in-pretoria-praises-van-niekerk\",\"name\":\"Botswana star breaks Wayde's world mark in Pretoria, praises Van Niekerk - 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