Letsile Tebogo upstages Covid-hit Noah Lyles, ‘Super Syd’ roars to world record

PARIS – Letsile Tebogo claimed a historic Olympic 200m title for Botswana on Aug 8, as Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone produced a stunning performance to smash the women’s 400m hurdles world record.

Tebogo’s superb run shattered Noah Lyles’ hopes for three golds, as he was forced to settle for bronze and then revealed he has Covid-19.

McLaughlin-Levrone left Dutch rival Femke Bol with the bronze as the American lowered her own world mark to 50.37sec and retained her title from Tokyo.

Three of the five finals on a mesmerising night at the Stade de France were claimed by Americans, but the fancied Lyles was not among them.

Grant Holloway won the 110m hurdles gold that had eluded him at the Tokyo Games, while Tara Davis-Woodhall won the women’s long jump.

There was another exceptional performance in the men’s javelin as Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem threw an Olympic record of 92.97m for his country’s first individual gold at a Summer Games.

All the pre-race talk about the men’s 200m was about 100m champion Lyles emulating Usain Bolt’s sprint doubles.

But there was to be an upset as the 21-year-old Tebogo raced to victory in an African record of 19.46sec, taking him to fifth on the all-time list. He also became the first African to win the Olympic 200m.

American Kenny Bednarek collected silver in 19.62sec and Lyles faded but took bronze in 19.70sec.

“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 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,” he added.

Lyles, who was pictured in the warm-up area wearing a mask, admitted after the race he had tested positive for Covid-19, which he said had “definitely affected my performance”.

There was much pre-Games hype over the head-to-head between American McLaughlin-Levrone and Bol, but there was only one winner on the night.

“Super Syd” tracked Bol and hit the home straight well ahead before streaking home for an outstanding victory that left the Dutchwoman in tears.

McLaughlin-Levrone gave credit to her opponents, saying that Bol (52.15sec) and silver medallist Anna Cockrell (51.87sec) had “so much depth... and so you get nervous”.

“But you channel those nerves into excitement and this is a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to run in an Olympics,” she added. “There are always things you can improve. There’s no such thing as a perfect race but the closer and closer we can get to 49 (seconds) I feel like we’re inching there.”

Meanwhile, Nadeem produced his best performance when it mattered as the Pakistani dominated India’s defending champion Neeraj Chopra to win South Asian boasting rights.

He unleashed his monster throw on his second attempt, with Chopra only managing 89.45m, more than three metres behind. Grenada’s Anderson Peters was third with 88.54m. AFP