Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo dashed to the finish line winning the men’s 200m at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Stade de France.
The 21-year-old Tebogo raced to victory in an African record of 19.47sec, taking him to fifth on the all-time list.
He also became the first African to win the Olympic 200m metres.
“It means a lot to the African continent because now they see Africa as a sprinting home, so we just had to make sure that the message is loud and clear,” said Tebogo.
“It was really a beautiful race for me,” he added.
He had stopped training for a month after the death of his mother Seratiwa in May and the spikes he wore to win gold bear his late mother’s date of birth.
“It’s basically me carrying her through every stride that I take inside the field.”
Tebogo, last year’s world championship bronze medallist, overtook the American 100 metres champion on the bend and cruised the rest of the way unchallenged to finish in 19.96 seconds. The 27-year-old Lyles had to work hard to finish second in 20.08.