Tebogo to start at Melbourne’s Maurie Plant Meet

 GLOBAL athletics sensation and Olympic champion sprinter, Letsile Tebogo is set to dazzle at the Maurie Plant Meet Melbourne on March 29, 2025, bringing his world-class speed and style to Lakeside Stadium.

The first-ever Olympic gold medalist from Botswana, Tebogo, has confirmed his participation in the 400m at the inaugural 2025 World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meet. Fresh off his dominant 200m victory at the Paris Olym­pics, where he clocked a blazing 19.46 seconds to become the fifth-fast­est man in history, the 21-year-old is ready to light up the track in Australia.

“I’m excit­ed to com­pete for the very first time in Australia and open my 2025 season at the Maurie Plant Meet as the Olympic 200m champion,” Tebogo said. “I’m looking forward to the electric support of the Austra­lian crowd, let’s make it a race to remember!”

Crowned World Athletics’ Male Athlete of the Year in 2024, Tebogo boasts a 9.86-sec­ond personal best in the 100m and holds the world’s fastest 300m time of 30.69 seconds. In Melbourne, he’ll shift his focus to the 400m, a distance where he’ll look to challenge Mi­chael Johnson’s legendary 43.84-second run at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, the fastest ever record­ed in Australia.

Tebogo also anchored Botswana to silver in the Men’s 4x400m Relay in Paris, showcasing his versatility and ambition to push bound­aries. “I will be stepping up to the challenge of the 400m. Starting the season with this long-dis­tance challenge will set the stage for what’s ahead. I’m ready to push my limits and make every moment count,” Tebogo said.

He’ll be joined by fellow Botswana Olympians, Bayapo Ndori, Leungo Scotch, and Victor Ntweng. Ndori, who clocked 44.10 seconds in the 400m, was a key part of Bo­tswana’s Olympic silver medal relay team alongside Tebogo. A rising star since claiming back-to-back 100m World Under-20 titles in 2021 and 2022, Tebogo added to his accolades with World Championship silver in the 100m and bronze in the 200m in 2023.

The Maurie Plant Meet Melbourne continues to attract global superstars, following ap­pearances by athletes like 100m world champion Fred Kerley (2023), Olympic long jump champion Tara Davis-Woodhall (2023), and 1500m world cham­pion Jake Wightman (2024).

As the first of 13 Gold-level meets in the 2025 World Athlet­ics Continental Tour, the event sits just below the Diamond League in prestige. It is Ocea­nia’s sole Gold-level meet and is backed by the Victorian Gov­ernment’s Significant Sporting Events Program, forming part of Athletics Australia’s Chem­ist Warehouse Aus­tralian Summer of Athletics.

—Insidethe­games