When Letsile Tebogo started the 2026 season, he made it clear: “I couldn’t disappoint.” And he backed it up early by winning the 200m, clocking 20.75 at the BAA Track and Field Series in Francistown. But the rhythm did not last for long. In early April, at the Orange Botswana Athletics National Championships, he got injured after slipping while testing his starting blocks before the men’s 100m heats. Since then, consistency has been harder to hold. And now, the same pattern continued in the Diamond League in Rabat, where he lost the race to his Paris Olympic rival in the men’s 200m.

Running his second 200m of the season, 2024 Paris Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo came up with the silver medal in 19.96 seconds on May 31st. Kenny Bednarek won in 19.69 seconds. Bednarek’s 19.69 broke the Rabat Diamond League record (20.03 by Andre De Grasse in 2017) and marked the first sub-20 time in the event’s history.

Despite the defeat, Tebogo stayed calm in his assessment and explained how the process will yield results.

“The last time I ran a 200m, it was a 20.70, so improving my season’s best was bound to happen today. Consistently lowering my season’s best shows there is clear progress and that there’s light at the end of the tunnel. I’m happy with how things went, and I’m already looking forward to the next one.

“I believe everything has its start and its finish, so we just take it step by step. We don’t overcomplicate things, but we still have the Ultimate Championships ahead of us. That remains the main goal and the main target. These results show that I am right on track,” he said after the race.

Even with that positivity, the situation has not changed much, as he has been stuck in a losing streak in the Diamond League. He opened his 2026 campaign in Shanghai with seventh place in the 100m in 10.12 seconds, followed by eighth in Xiamen in 10.10 seconds. Those early races showed he was still searching for sharpness in the shorter sprint. And now, in Rabat, he ran 19.96, which is 0.50 seconds slower than his personal best of 19.46 set in 2024.

Rabat has been a tough venue for Tebogo over the years. Last year in the 2025 Rabat Diamond League, he finished ninth in the 100m in 10.43 seconds and withdrew from the 200m.

But in 2026, there have still been brighter moments along the way. Botswana claimed gold in the men’s 4x400m relay at the World Athletics Relays in Gaborone, where Tebogo played his part in the home team’s effort, finishing in 2:54.47.

At the same time, for Kenny Bednarek it was a big win as he arrived after earlier finishing third in Shanghai and fourth in Xiamen over 100m, before switching focus back to the 200m.

After the race, he said: “I didn’t expect to run that fast, but I knew I had a good sub-20 in me. Being in China running those 100m´s felt easy to me; I was making a few mistakes here and there, but I learned…”

Still, one result does not define the bigger picture. Even with Bednarek getting the better of him in Rabat, Tebogo’s past performances and breakthrough years are hard to overlook.

The real reason behind Letsile Tebogo’s slow start in 2026

At the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, Letsile Tebogo announced himself on the global stage with a silver in the 100m (9.88) and a bronze in the 200m (19.81). That made him one of the youngest sprinters ever to medal in both sprint events at the same World Championships. However, his major success was at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

There he made history for Botswana by winning the 200m gold in 19.46 seconds. He also added a silver medal in the 4x400m relay. That 200m victory made him the first Olympic gold medalist from Botswana and the first African man to win Olympic 200m gold.

Even in 2026, his season has been more uneven, but still active at a high level. He won the 100m race when he ran 10.28 in Potchefstroom and 10.20 in Gaborone. But there is a clear reason why his races are slow.

Tebogo recently revealed where he feels most comfortable in training. He has said he tends to enjoy 400m-focused work more than short sprints because it suits his rhythm better than pure block acceleration.

“I enjoy the 400m training more than the sprints one, because the one and the two, it’s always about speed; it’s always about being quick from the block, so I kind of hate that, but when you put me into the 400m program, that’s where I’ll really give you my best shot,” Letsile Tebogo said in the pre-race press conference. Even this year, he has run 400m as well as won it.

He also posted 44.37 in Gaborone and 45.93 in Johannesburg. His personal best in the 400m stands at 44.29. His comfort in longer sprints suggests he could move up to the 400m full-time.