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Former US sprinter Justin Gatlin has revealed why Botswana will surprise many in the relays at the upcoming Olympic games in Paris.
Justin Gatlin has expressed his awe for an African nation that have quietly been building a proper 4x400m relay team for the upcoming Paris Olympic Games.
For years, the men’s relays have been dominated by American, Caribbean and on occasions, European nations in recent years. It has been a while since an African team actually won gold at the Olympics.
The first African team to have claimed gold in the 4x400m relay is Kenya at the Munich Games in Germany in 1972, before Nigeria did it at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
In the shorter version of the relay, only Nigeria have ever medalled, when they took bronze in 2004.
In 2021, team Botswana clinched bronze at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympic games behind the USA and the Netherlands.
The top 14 teams from each category at the relays will automatically qualify for the Olympics. Teams finishing outside the top 14 bracket will then have to hope that no other side registers a better time than they did leading to the closing of relay qualifications.
Should Botswana relay teams fail to finish in the top 14 brackets, it would mean they will have to consistently fight off other teams to ensure they have better times to qualify. This would put athletes’ individual qualifications in jeopardy as they would have to be called to compete in the relay teams instead of focusing on individual pursuits.
Botswana have sent three teams of 4x400m relays to the event. The three include men, women and mixed relay teams. The country named 20 athletes’ of 10 men and as many women.
The men’s provisional, which includes wunderkid Letsile Tebogo also includes Isaac Makwala, Bayapo Ndori, Zibane Ngozi, the three bronze medalists in Paris, as well as Collen Kebinatshipi, Anthony Pesela, Leungo Scotch, Tumo van Wyk, Boitumelo Masilo and Omphile Seribe.
Ahead of the world relays taking place in Bahamas on May 4 and 5, Gatlin has namechecked Botswana as the team likely to surprise many people at the upcoming Paris Olympic games.
“A little birdie told me that actually, team Botswana will be in World Relays, so you might get to see this prototype come to fruition right there in Nassau,” Gatlin said on his Ready Set Go YouTube channel.
“You might see something nasty from team Botswana.
“I cannot see any other short sprinters coming out of Botswana right now that would build a quartet around Tebogo, so I believe they will run a 4x400m for sure.”
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