Botswana track star Letsile Tebogo broke Wayde van Niekerk’s 300m world best at Pilditch Stadium in Pretoria on Saturday afternoon, charging to victory in 30.69.

Earlier Akani Simbine lowered the South African 150m mark he had shared with Anaso Jobodwana to 15.04.

Tebogo, the double sprint medallist at the 2023 world championships, took more than a tenth of a second off the 30.81 mark Van Niekerk set in Ostrava in 2017.

Ironically South Africa has played a role, one way or another, in the 300m best this millennium — American superstar Michael Johnson ran his 30.85 best in 2000 at Pilditch. 

Tebogo, who took 100m silver and 200m bronze in Budapest last year, paid tribute to Van Niekerk. “He's a brother to me. We share the good vibes. There's no bad energy between us.”

And then he added, as if addressing Van Niekerk: “So thank you for always pushing me and telling me not to belittle myself. Thank you so much, mate.”

The 20-year-old said he had yet to sit down with his coach to discuss his goals for the Paris Olympics.

Tebogo is the latest athletics star from Botswana which is punching way above its weight and outperforming South Africa.

Since 2019 South Africa has failed to win a single meet at four major meets — one Olympics and three world championships.

Botswana, with a population of less than three million people, won three medals in that time — an Olympic relay gong and Tebogo’s double.

Tebogo believes South Africa should be doing better on the world stage.

“Looking at the facilities that they have here, it should be an advantage to them,” he said.

“The facilities [in Botswana] are not as good as South Africa but we try and use what we have so that we can show the world that there's still more in Botswana.”

The key to Botswana’s success was that everyone in the sport, even those in different training groups, worked towards a common goal, he said.

“I think it's because we are united ... So what happens is we train together, we push each other every day so that we can succeed as one team.”

Tebogo said South African athletes shouldn’t lose hope.

“They shouldn't give up because we all come from different backgrounds. So it's best to keep going because I didn't just bloom today. It was a process from 2016.”