Letsile Tebogo looked like a man in complete control in Lausanne, cruising to a 19.87-second win in the 200m. Nine days later, that confidence took a serious hit. The Olympic champion stepped up to the 400m in Brescia and suddenly found himself on the wrong end of one of his worst results of the season.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
Tebogo finished eighth in 45.34 seconds, dead last in the eight-man field. For a runner who had not finished outside the top three in the 400m all season, it was a stunning drop and easily his worst result over the distance in 2026.
On August 30, Tebogo returned to the 400m, lining up in a very strong eight-man field. He was actually one of the favorites on paper, entering with a 2026 season’s best of 44.37 and a personal best of 44.29.
But the race flipped those expectations completely, with Tebogo falling all the way to the bottom of the standings as the field finished in the following order:
- Leendert Koekemoer – 44.52 seconds, first place
- Jonas Phijffers – 44.61 seconds, second place
- Reece Holder – 44.63 seconds, third place
- Vernon Norwood – 44.73 seconds, fourth place
- Bayapo Ndori – 44.79 seconds, fifth place
- Muhammad Abdallah Kounta – 44.90 seconds, sixth place
- Kirani James – 44.92 seconds, seventh place
The eighth-place finish was also unusual for Tebogo in the 400m this season. Before Brescia, he had competed over the distance three times in 2026 and had never finished outside the top three.
He opened the year with 45.93 seconds on March 14, followed three days later by 46.09 seconds, before producing a much stronger 44.37-second victory in Gaborone on April 11. His Brescia result was consequently his first 400m finish outside the podium in 2026.
Yet the decision to run the 400m in Brescia was never presented as Tebogo abandoning the 200m.
The race organizers had described the appearance as an opportunity for the Olympic 200m champion to test himself over the one-lap distance, which he rarely races during the main international season.
The meeting also pointed out that Tebogo had already competed at Brescia in the 200m in 2024 and the 100m in 2025.
More importantly, Botswana’s Daily News explained the thinking behind the move. “Not a pivot but a calculated detour” ahead of the World Athletics Ultimate Championship, adding that the short-sprint star was “deliberately hunting down lactic acid.”
The idea was to use the longer sprint to build speed endurance and help him maintain his top-end speed deeper into his primary events. But no amount of strategy can dress up the result where he finished eighth and dead last in Brescia.
But Tebogo has explained the same logic himself in the past.
“The 400m is something I’m doing just to see how the body’s going to be after the first 200m and the last 200m,” he told NBC Sports in 2024. He also said sprinters can struggle with endurance across multiple championship rounds, while making it clear that the 200m remains his preferred event.
And Tebogo’s approach is similar to the one Usain Bolt used during his prime.
Bolt revealed that Glen Mills regularly had him run the 400m early in the season to build endurance before shifting the focus back to the 100m and 200m. “Everyone has to do 400m no matter who you are,” Bolt said, later explaining that those early races helped him get used to the distance and develop the endurance base needed for shorter sprints.
Well, despite the disappointing result in Brescia, Tebogo’s bigger goals remain unchanged.
Olympic Champion keeps 200m at the heart of his long-term plans
Letsile Tebogo’s principal focus is the men’s 200m. He is the reigning Olympic champion, having clinched gold at Paris 2024 in an African record of 19.46 seconds.
In 2026, he started his Diamond League season with a 19.84-second win in Oslo on June 10 and followed that with a 19.87-second victory at the Lausanne Diamond League on August 21.
The biggest championship on Tebogo’s 2026 calendar is the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest, scheduled for September 11-13.
Tebogo was announced as one of the event’s Ultimate Stars in April, with his qualification secured through his status as the reigning Olympic 200m champion.
He is set to compete in the 200m, giving him another opportunity to test himself against the world’s best after establishing himself as one of the leading sprinters over the distance.
Further down the road, the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics remain the obvious long-term target. Brescia may have exposed the cost of Tebogo’s 400m experiment, but it has not changed what he is building toward. The 200m remains the centerpiece.