BONGANI MALUNGA
One of Botswana’s main medal hopefuls for the upcoming IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Nijel Amos, is showing a great deal of form at the perfect time of the season. He is in a great position to win his IAAF Diamond League category but most importantly he is in peak form with the London held World Championships only 22 days away.
London bodes well with Amos and if his previous triumphs are anything to go by, it could be a good omen that the World Championships are hosted in the stadium where he made history in the 2012 Olympic Games.
Amos has shrugged off a tough start to the year by recording the fastest time in 800m races this year. The season started on the on a bad note finished 11th in his first Diamond League outing in Rome, Italy as he tripped and fell in a disappointing race.
He bounced back and recorded successive first place finishes in the Diamond League within the space of a week. The Marobela native had previously failed to win a Diamond League race since July 2015 Diamond League meet hosted, ironically, in London.
His winning streak this year started in Paris on July 1, whereby he recorded a (1:44.24) season’s best for himself, his latest victory took place in London this past Sunday and recorded the fastest record of the year in 800m races (1:43.18).
Nijel has now catapulted to second place in the Diamond league standings, he is only six points behind Kenya’s Kipyegon Bett with five editions of the competition left.
400m supremo Baboloki Thebe has also been in a rich vein of form, he is the current leader in his category despite being the youngest in the multi series competition. Last week he impressed as he went toe to toe with the world’s best 400m athlete Wayne Van Nierkek and garnered the second spot in a toughly contested race.
Thebe has proved that he is one to watch in the 400m category, in fact he is a legitimate threat and a potential world champion based on the form he has displayed so far. Van Nierkek, LaShawn Merritt and Botswana’s own Isaac Makwala have already cemented their place among the 400m greats but Thebe is only just starting and is taking the baton and aiming for the top.