Justin Gatlin has picked Letsile Tebogo to dominate track and field in 2025 over Noah Lyles, likening the Botswana star to the legendary Usain Bolt.
The 2025 athletics track and field season promises thrills and fireworks in equal measure if the hard work behind the scenes by top athletes is any barometer.
While 2024 saw 17 world records being broken at the Paris Olympic Games, a lot more is expected this year, highlighting the cut-throat competition across various fields.
Olympic champion Noah Lyles is loved and hated in equal measure. His opinions have received mixed reactions from the people.
As momentum builds towards major events in 2025, American sprints legend Justin Gatlin believes Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo will be a force to reckon with, picking the man from Botswana ahead of Noah Lyles.
In a YouTube podcast, Run Your Race, Gatlin hinted that Tebogo is a prospect for the coming days, comparing him with retired Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, considered one of the greatest sprinters of all time.
Gatlin, who won the 2004 Olympic 100m race, said: “He (Letsile Tebogo) actually, I would say he’s like a compact version of Usain Bolt. He has the same running style as Usain. He’s like, his swag is cool, you know what I mean? Emoji with sunglass kind of dude. Just cool, quiet.”
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It isn’t surprising that the all-conquering legend opted for Tebogo over Lyles. American Lyles won the Paris Olympic 100m gold and managed bronze in 200m, as Tebogo, 21, steered clear to clinch gold and hand Botswana its first-ever Olympic gold medal in a challenging year for Africa’s teen sensation.
Gatlin, a four-time world champion, further affirming his choice of Tebogo, highlighted that the 2021 World U20 100m champion has what it takes to achieve crazy records in all shorter distances. “His running is just crazy. But his body, he can run 400,300,200,100 and I mean like at elite levels.”
Lyles, who boasts of six world titles, has brushed shoulders with Tebogo on several occasions in 2024 and that is not expected to slow down in 2025 as a supremacy battle ensues.
