Botswana accorded Letsile Tebogo a hero’s welcome upon arrival from Paris where he won an Olympic gold medal in the men’s 200m, the country’s first ever in any sport.
Tebogo, 21, beat a competitive field of experienced sprinters including the phenomenal Noah Lyles of the US who won bronze during the August 8 final.
Botswana announced a national “afternoon day-off” on Friday to celebrate Tebogo's historic exploits.
On arrival home on Tuesday, he was received alongside his teammates in a fully packed stadium in the capital Gaborone to song and dance.
Footage shared online by a local television channel, BTV, showed crowds cheering as they followed the team that arrived in the stadium on top of a bus, preceded by police escort and outriders.
Tebogo stormed to the golden moment in 19:46 ahead of Kenneth Bednarek of the US who clocked 19.62 while Lyles came home in 19:70, the fastest ever time for third place in any race.
Their US teammate Erriyon Knighton, a two-time world medallist, finished fourth in 19.99.
Despite his historic achievement, Tebogo, a six-time world champion said: “I believe I can’t be the face of athletics because I’m not an arrogant or a loud person like Noah so I believe Noah is the face of athletics.”
Tebogo was in lane seven with Bednarek and Knighton to his right. Lyles was to his left.
Tebogo was slightly ahead of his US rivals straight when they hit the curve and sustained the momentum and pulled away and on looking up at the screen, started to celebrate on his approach to the finish line with chest thumps.
He dedicated the win to his mother Seratiwa, who died in May, by holding one of his shoes – which bore her date of birth - to the camera.
“It’s basically me carrying her through every stride that I take inside the field. She’s watching up there, and she’s really, really happy,” he said.
Tebogo’s 19:46 was an improvement to his African record by 0.04sec set in London last year.
Letsile capped his memorable 200m achievement with a silver medal won in the 4x400m relay capping off a memorable competition for Botswana.
This somewhat served to lessen the disappointment of finishing sixth in the 100m final won by Lyles in 9.79, a hundredth of a second ahead of Jamaican Kishane Thompson.
Tebogo’s Olympic gold and silver add to two world medals – 100m silver and 200m bronze – which he claimed in Budapest last year.
