Botswana Storm to Victory in Men's 4x400m World Athletics Final

Gettyimages | Botswana’s men's 4x400m relay team stormed to victory at the World Athletics Championship in Tokyo, closely followed by the  USA and South Africa

The relay races, placed at the end of the 2025 World Athletics Championships, saw many impressive performances from athletes globally; however, one that stood out was the men's 4x400m final in which Botswana, USA, South Africa, Belgium, Qatar, GBR, Jamaica, Netherlands and Portugal competed for the podium, with Botswana eventually taking the gold in a historic showdown. Before this, Botswana had shown strong relay potential in the World Relay Championships and Olympics, but had yet to gain a win in this particular title. The Botswana team consisted of Collen Kebinatshipi, Bayapo Ndori, Lee Bhekempilo and the highly decorated Letsile Tebogo.

The final took place on September 21, 2025, in the Tokyo Olympic Stadium, which was run in the rain, causing the track and batons to be slippery, increasing the likelihood of disqualification due to faults. The Botswana team had a strong opening 300m by the USA, and South Africa were close behind with every changeover over and the podium was evidently decided within the anchor leg of the race. Collen Kebinatshipi ran a powerful leg along the final stretch to snatch the victory, running an impressive time of 2:57:76, marking it as the first time an African nation had ever won the men’s 4x400m relay at the World Championships.

Botswana was followed closely behind by the USA and South Africa, both running a time of 2:57:83, yet the USA gained silver and South Africa got the bronze with a difference of 2 thousandths of a second between their times, making it one of the closest finals in men's relay history. As a result of this, the Botswana government declared a public holiday not just to celebrate sporting success but also national pride.