by Deji Ogeyingbo
Graceful, Intelligent, and relaxed, Tebogo is having fun while running
There is an unwritten rule in professional sports about athletes showing respect to their opponents, either when they are competing or not. If you look deeper into the Olympic tenets, it is embedded. Most people don’t see it often, especially when competing, as professional athletes tend to give their all as the talent gap is very infinitesimal.
Some athletes even hide some of their talents that will bring fun to the game just to respect the ‘unwritten’ rule. Heck, some sports, such as soccer, could penalize the players for showboating. In track, the unwritten rule among sprinters is to always run through the line and try not to make fun of your opponents in whatever manner. Cheeky or not.
Of course, runners hardly follow the rules. Partly because they are humans, their instinct comes into play, especially when they are achieving success, and also because they just want to have fun and not take it all too seriously. You could go out on a limb and tag Letsile Tebogo in the latter category.
Tebogo is the current star of Athletics- at least on the Track. Aside from the fact that he is riding on a massive wave of confidence after his Olympic Gold over in the 200m, it just feels like he can do no wrong. At his last 100m race in the Rome Diamond League, the Motswana was a joy to watch. How can you now love him?
We talk a great deal about athletes enjoying their sport and not being tense when they line up against their opponents, but Tebogo takes it to the next level. Almost like he took the aura out of the playbook of the great Usain Bolt. It’s not like it was surprising, considering he has shown glimpses of what he is capable of during his junior career.
A look at his opponents at the Rome Diamond League and at least four of the guys on the line-up had better Personal Best than Tebogo. Fred Kerley, Ferdinand Omanyala, Christian Coleman, and Marcell Jacobs. The shorter sprint hasn’t been his best event since transitioning into the senior category, but he finds a way to get into the mix, mainly because of his raw talent. He won a Silver at the last world championship in Budapest and got to the Olympic final in Paris.
Tebogo doesn’t get flustered easily. Maybe it stems from the fact he doesn’t put too much pressure on himself and enjoys his race as much as he can. Well, it’s easy to say when you have won three on the stretch before racing in Rome. His start at the Olympic stadium was perhaps one of the very best in his career. Of course, he wasn’t going to beat Coleman who ran the first 60m in 6.41, the same time as Tebogo.
From then on, Tebogo moved into second gear. The second part of his race is usually his best and with less than 20m to go, the former world junior champion looked to his left and saw he was slightly ahead of Coleman and Kerley and gave them a look. What followed next was a roar and affirmation of what he already knew. No one was going to catch him in that last 10m. And he rightly put the icing on the cake with the win in 9.87s.
Track fans like to focus their attention on the times athletes run, but for the most part, it doesn’t really matter to an athlete like Tebogo, who places more emphasis on enjoying every bit of his race. The crowd did love that part of him and as much as we talk a great deal about the dominance of Bolt during his era, this was one aspect of his running that endeared him to millions around the world.
Tebogo is at a phase in his career where he can show up not in full flight mode and still give you a darn good race, Of course, it won’t work all the time as his opponents will be hell-bent on catching up to him. But that’s where the intelligence part comes from. He’s surely going to get better and we better be ready for more fun.
