Amantle Montsho lives up to expectations in Monaco – Athletics news
The efforts of organisers of the Monaco event in convening the best athletics fields for the meets surely paid the dividends, when scintillating results were produced by a number of athletes. This was perhaps the only event where even athletes like Usain
Bolt had to fight for each inch of the way to prevail in the 100m run.
The event also observed a new Kenyan record by Brimin Kipruto in the 3000m steeplechase, which just missed the world record by a hundredth of a second. On the women’s side, the duty to make the event a worthwhile watch was accomplished by Amantle Montsho,
the 28-year-old 400m runner from Botswana, who marked her dominance on the Monaco track in a way that her spectators have started seeing her as the favourite for the upcoming IAAF World Athletics championships to be held in Daegu.
Montsho, who represented her country in Summer Olympics of 2004 and 2008, has also had the chance of appearing at the World Championships in Athletics along with the IAAF World Indoor Championships. The young runner who has believes in putting her entire
efforts for emerging in a race and preparing well for it, has been a two-time African champion and has also had the privilege of claiming the event titles of the 2007 All Africa Games, the Commonwealth games of 2010 and the IAAF Continental Cup in the same
year.
After emerging at the Monaco run and while commenting upon her ‘unexpected success’, she said, “My country is very proud of me because I'm the first woman to achieve this kind of thing in Botswana. I never thought that would happen even when I was driving
hard when I was young, but now I believe in myself and that I am where I always wanted to be.”
Despite of the fact that she marked a stunning victory in Monaco, the humble athlete is of the view that she was not in favour of claiming the idea that a gold medal was waiting for her in Korea. Emerging in five out of the seven big races, the formidable
runner said, “Now I'm looking towards Daegu but what I really need to do is just concentrate on getting into the final. I'm not thinking about any medals.” These indeed were some humble words from a runner who, for just missing the world record, had every
reason to boast of big claims about next month’s World Championships.
Sharing the secrets behind her recent performance, Montsho admitted that it was the result of the quality facilities provided at the IAAF High Performance Training Centre in Dakar, Senegal. Training abroad meant that she had to leave her family for a prolonged
span of time, but she was of the view that as long as it was helping her in improving her game, she could not downplay its importance for her career.
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