Botswana's Letsile Tebogo (© Getty Images)
Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo stormed to a world 300m best of 30.69 at the Simbine Curro Classic Shoot-Out in Pretoria, South Africa, on Saturday (17).
With that performance, the 20-year-old takes more than a tenth of a second off the previous world best of 30.81 set by Wayde van Niekerk in Ostrava, Czech Republic, on 28 June 2017.
Prior to that, the world best stood to Michael Johnson with the 30.85 he clocked in 2000, also in Pretoria. The fourth athlete to have dipped under 31 seconds for the discipline is Usain Bolt with the 30.97 he ran in 2010.
Tebogo dominated the race on Saturday, blasting from the blocks to create a clear lead by the bend. From there he continued to cruise, increasing his advantage even further down the home straight.
The double world medallist won by more than a second ahead of Gardeo Isaacs (31.91), while Bayapo Ndori was third in 31.95.
Tebogo is no stranger to making history – he set a world U20 100m record of 9.94 at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon in 2022 and then improved that mark to 9.91 to retain his world U20 title in Cali the following month.
He has since improved his national 100m record to 9.88, achieved when securing silver at last year’s World Championships in Budapest, while his 200m best of 19.50, set in London last year, is the African record.
Alongside his world 100m silver in Budapest, Tebogo claimed 200m bronze in 19.81.
In other action in Pretoria on Saturday, South Africa’s Akani Simbine won the 150m in 15.04.
