Botswana has declared Monday, 29 September, a public holiday to celebrate the men’s 4×400 metres relay team that won gold at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, becoming the first African nation to claim the event.
President Duma Boko hailed the victory as a “historic African win,” praising Lee Bhekempilo Eppie, Letsile Tebogo, Bayapo Ndori and Busang Collen Kebinatshipi in an online address from New York, where he is attending the UN General Assembly.
Botswana edged the United States—the winners of the last 10 world titles—in a rain-soaked final on Sunday, with South Africa taking bronze. “Botswana’s natural diamonds are not just in the ground, they are our world champion athletes,” Boko said, calling the moment “electric.”
The championship capped a landmark meet for the country: Botswana finished fifth on the medal table—behind the U.S., Kenya, the Netherlands and Canada—with two golds, one silver and one bronze, the nation’s best-ever haul.
It follows another milestone last year when Tebogo won Botswana’s first Olympic gold with his 200m triumph in Paris—the first time an African athlete had won that event. Tens of thousands greeted him at Gaborone’s National Stadium, and the government declared a half-day holiday to mark the achievement, which then-President Mokgweetsi Masisi called a singular moment in the republic’s history.