The stumble, the fall and solo run
Botswana athletes have come more and more to the global limelight in recent years. While their talents are undoubted, their brands have been further enhanced by significance on the side incidents, notes Staff Writer,
Botswana has made visible strides in athletics, culminating in the first Olympic Games medal in 2012. The year before, Amantle Montsho made history, when she became the world’s 400-metre champion.
Athletics has seen an upward trajectory since Glody Dube reached the 2000 Olympic Games’ 800m final. He was the first to achieve such a feat.
It opened the gates for Botswana’s talent to play a significant role on the global stage. Since then, Montsho has become a world champion, Nijel Amos bagged the country’s first ever Olympic Games medal in 2012, while Isaac Makwala once broke two African records in one day. Makwala is also a Commonwealth Games champion.
Athletics has, by miles, been the country’s most reliable and best-performing code on the international scene.
While recent performances have caught the eye, there have been ‘sidebars’ that have further enhanced athletes’ reputations.
In 2015, during the World Championships in Beijing, Amos was tipped to win gold. However, in the semi-finals, Amos stumbled around what is now seen as the cursed 150m bend. He never recovered and crashed out of the competition, with the stumble, the talking point.
The 150m mark around the final bend has popped up at crucial times to present a race-defining headache for Amos. During the final on Wednesday, Amos’ race was lost at around the same 150m ‘crash site’ as he failed to put enough
foot on the accelerator to overtake his opponents. Three days earlier, Amos had tripped and fallen around the same bend as he looked to kick on in the semi-final of the 800m in Tokyo. The fall was, however, not fatal as Amos was allowed to proceed to the final, as it was deemed, he had been impeded.
The fall propelled the already established Amos brand to new heights. Together, with his ‘fall partner’ Isaiah Jewett from the US, showed great sportsmanship.
They could have chosen finger-pointing, a frown or an accusing glance, but instead, the world watched as the two got up, embraced before they trotted to the finish line.
It was a soothing moment after the disappointment
of the fall, and those gathered at the Japan National Stadium applauded the moment.
Some international news outlets described the moment as ‘bigger’ than the Olympic gold.
It is a gesture that will no doubt enhance Amos’ established brand and the athlete could be rewarded with the Olympic spirit award.
While Amos’ recent fall was the most significant side event, Makwala’s solo run in London five years back, is arguably the stand-out moment.
Makwala had been denied an opportunity to contest in the semi-finals of the 200m. He had initially been ruled out after organisers adjudged he and other athletes had suffered from a stomach virus. But the athlete protested that he was fine. Athletics governing body, IAAF granted him a reprieve and ordered Makwala to run the race in under 20.53seconds.
On a wet pitch before an appreciative crowd, Makwala pounded the ground in a solo run that redefined his career.
He finished the race in 20.20 seconds and qualified for the final. Although he finished fifth in the final, he had enhanced his then relatively unknown reputation.
He became a household brand, and benefitted immensely from the solo run, going on to win gold in the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast the next year. Even up to now, five years on, the Makwala run remains one of athletics’ talking points in recent history.