A capacity crowd at the National Stadium in Gaborone watched Botswana close out their first World Athletics Relays as hosts in storybook fashion on Sunday, with Lee Eppie, Letsile Tebogo, Bayapo Ndori and Collen Kebinatshipi combining for a competition record 2:54.47 in the men's 4x400m.
The time is the fastest ever run at a World Relays and the third fastest in history. South Africa held on for silver in 2:55.07 and Australia, riding a sensational 43.12 split from Reece Holder, took bronze in 2:55.20.
For Eppie, who set the tone with a 44.26 opening leg, the brief from the team room had been to chase the world record itself.
"We wanted to break the world record, we didn't care about the gold," Eppie said after the race.
Olympic 200m champion Tebogo provided the centrepiece run of the meeting, splitting 43.50 on the second leg to hand his teammates a lead they never surrendered. The 22-year-old's effort came on the heels of an even quicker leg from South Africa's Lythe Pillay, whose 42.66 was retroactively recognised as the fastest 4x400m relay split ever recorded.
"This was the best moment in my career," Tebogo said, his voice cracking. "How the crowd has held us together."
Ndori, the 2022 Commonwealth 400m champion, kept Botswana clear through the third exchange before Kebinatshipi unleashed a closing carry that spread the field. Portugal finished fourth in 2:59.75, ahead of Zimbabwe in 2:59.79, Netherlands at 3:00.13 and Belgium in 3:00.69. Qatar, who had qualified through the heats, were disqualified.
The result extends a remarkable 12-month run for Botswana's 4x400m unit, who have now wrested back the world's top time during a season in which the United States are skipping the relays altogether to focus on individual qualification.
Sunday night's victory locked Botswana, South Africa and Australia into the World Athletics Championships in Beijing in 2027, with the top eight in Gaborone earning automatic qualification.
For Tebogo, whose Olympic 200m title in Paris transformed him into Botswana's biggest sporting figure, the relay closes a circle in the country he calls home. The 4x400m has been the heartbeat of Botswana athletics for the better part of a decade — Sunday's run elevates the unit into the same conversation as the all-time American quartets that have dominated the event since the 1990s.
With the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest only four months away and the 2027 Beijing Worlds the longer-term target, Botswana now arrive at every start line as the team to beat. As Tebogo put it on Sunday night, "the kids in Mochudi will look at this stadium tonight, and decide that Botswana can do it on the track."
