End of the series for Letsile Tebogo: undefeated since he became the first African sprinter to be crowned Olympic champion in the 200m in Paris in the summer, the young Botswanan bowed out at the end of a 2024 season transformed into a “whirlwind”, in the final of the Diamond League in Brussels on Saturday evening.
Everything was going well for Tebogo since his historic Olympic gold won on the purple track of the Stade de France at the beginning of August: from Switzerland to Italy via Poland, from Lausanne to Brescia, via Chorzow, Zurich and Rome, both in the 200m, his favourite race, and in the 100m, the man who is establishing himself as a new face in world athletics, at 21, never stopped winning and proving, from meeting to meeting, his still Olympic form. Despite a daily life and training disrupted by his change in dimension.
A setback in the cool Brussels weather in the Diamond League final, inflicted precisely by the man Tebogo had beaten in the Olympic final, the American Kenny Bednarek, victorious in 19 sec 67 (wind: +0.7 m/s). Thirteen hundredths faster than the recent Olympic champion (19.80).
“It was both a good season and a difficult season,” recalls Tebogo, who suffered the pain of losing his mother in May.
– In the spotlight –
“I wanted to win the Diamond League but after the Olympics it was a whirlwind,” he said. “It wasn’t easy to stay focused. The spotlight is more on me now, but I have to focus on myself. Now it’s time to go home and get some rest.”
Threatened throughout the Olympic season, in a discipline in turmoil, the 800m world record ultimately resisted him.
With four of the seven fastest men in the history of the double lap at the start on the Belgian track, the very young Olympic champion, Kenyan Emmanuel Wanyonyi, won in 1 min 42 sec 70, ahead of Algerian Djamel Sedjati (1:42.86), Canadian Marco Arop (1:43.25), and Frenchman Gabriel Tual (1:43.67).
But David Rudisha’s time (1:40.91 in 2012) holds up. Even though these four have all come within a second of it in 2024.
When the thermometer drops in the King Baudouin Stadium, there is nothing better than Gianmarco Tamberi to warm up the atmosphere.
Victorious after clearing 2.34 m at his last chance, “Gimbo” celebrated with his usual exuberance: goat jumps, lap of honour in the middle of 5,000 m – dominated by the Kenyan Beatrice Chebet (14:09.82), on the ground with his arms crossed, Italian flag on his shoulders.
– Richardson fails in 200m –
“It’s been a difficult year for me,” recalled Tamberi, who was very weakened at the Olympics by kidney stones – but nevertheless crowned European champion in Rome in June and now winner of the Diamond League.
Now the reigning triple Olympic champion in the 1,500m – an unprecedented performance in middle distance – Kenyan Faith Kipyegon dominated the race in which she has reigned almost unchallenged since 2016 in 3 min 54 sec 75.
Initially announced on the half-lap of the track, Sha’Carri Richardson did not finally take the start. The reigning world champion of the 100 m, deprived of Olympic gold in Paris, ran her slowest straight line for two years the day before in the Belgian capital, in 11 sec 23 (8th).
In the shot put, a rare defeat for Ryan Crouser, the reigning triple Olympic champion and world record holder, beaten by the Italian Leonardo Fabbri (22.98 m, national and meeting records, against 22.79 m).
The final word went to the Dutchwoman Femke Bol, winner of the 400m hurdles in 52.45 seconds, ahead of the American Anna Cockrell, who had surprised her and pushed her onto the third step of the Olympic podium at the Stade de France.
vg-es/bde
