{"id":51175,"date":"2024-08-09T09:07:44","date_gmt":"2024-08-09T09:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/botswana-president-declares-an-afternoon-off-to-celebrate-tebogo-s-olympic\/"},"modified":"2024-08-09T09:06:41","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T09:06:41","slug":"botswana-president-declares-an-afternoon-off-to-celebrate-tebogo-s-olympic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/botswana-president-declares-an-afternoon-off-to-celebrate-tebogo-s-olympic\/","title":{"rendered":"Botswana President declares an ‘afternoon off’ to celebrate Tebogo’s Olympic victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tebogo won Botswana’s first-ever Olympic gold medal by finishing first in the men’s 200-meter race on Thursday night. The 21-year-old also made history as the first African to win the 200-meter sprint at the Olympics.<\/p>\n

“President of the Republic of Botswana, hereby declares to the nation, that he has found it a fitting tribute to Mr. Letsile Tebogo, “Botswana’s Sensation”, to grant Batswana and residents an afternoon day-off, on this very day, Friday the 9th August, 2024,” a statement from the Office of the President reads in part.<\/p>\n

The Botswana Head of State noted that Tebogo’s impressive performance deserves a special pause to recognize his triumph in a unique way.<\/p>\n

“The President underscores, recognises and acknowledges Letsile’s performance and achievement as markedly outstanding, and deserving of the nation to pause and celebrate him in a most unique, appropriate and responsible manner, that will be etched in the annals of the history of the Republic,” the statement adds.<\/p>\n

Tebogo delivered a stunning performance at the Paris Olympics despite being deeply affected by the death of his mother, his number one fan, in May.<\/p>\n

President Masisi applauded Tebogo for the great victory and extended a special tribute to the athlete’s late mother.<\/p>\n

“His Excellency President Masisi, wishes to state that, on behalf of all of the citizenry, he applauds Letsile and gives thanks unceasingly to his late mother.”<\/p>\n

Tebogo’s victory sent the world into a frenzy as he finished ahead of a talented field, including Americans Kenny Bednarek, Noah Lyles, and Erriyon Knighton.<\/p>\n

Tebogo led from start to finish, winning in 19.46 seconds \u2014 the fourth-fastest time in history, but 0.15 seconds slower than Lyles’ top time.<\/p>\n

Tebogo dedicated his victory to his late mother. After the race, he held up his spikes to the cameras, revealing a message that displayed her date of birth, and dedicated his win to her.<\/p>\n

“It’s basically me carrying her through every stride that I take inside the field,” Tebogo told journalists.<\/p>\n

“To take her with me, it gives me a lot of motivation. She’s watching up there, and she’s really, really happy.”<\/p>\n

\"Tebogo<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Botswana President Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi has granted an afternoon off on Friday, August 9, 2024, to celebrate Letsile Tebogo’s victory at the Paris Olympics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000073687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-51175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-wycliffe-nyamasege"],"bylines":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"contributors":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"featured_image":{"id":2000073687,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/tebogo.png","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/png","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/tebogo.png","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/tebogo.png","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/tebogo.png","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/tebogo.png","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/tebogo.png","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000073687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51175"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=51175"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=51175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}