President of Botswana Duma Boko has declared a public holiday in the country to celebrate the country’s Men’s 4×400 Metre Relay historic win at the World Athletics Championships.
This year’s Championships that recently concluded in Tokyo, Japan had Botswana beat out the United States of America (winners of the event in the last 10 world championships) to win the gold medal; South Africa finished in third place.
Letsile Tebogo, Lee Eppie Bhekempilo, Bayapo Ndori and Collen Kebinatshipi pushed Botswana past the US to win Africa’s first ever gold medal in the event.
“I’ll be sure to tell everyone, Botswana’s natural diamonds are not just in the ground, they are our World Champion athletes” President Boko said in his address delivered at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, USA.
This isn’t the first time a move like this has been made to celebrate Botswana’s athletes as a half-day holiday was declared last year to celebrate Tebogo’s 200 Metre gold medal win at the 2024 Olympics.
In the 2024 Olympics, Botswana won silver in the Men’s 4×400 Metre Relays. Botswana won gold and bronze in the Men’s 4X400 Metre event.
