Victor Ntweng’s rise has been swift.
A talented 400m runner, the 28-year-old only made the switch to hurdles in 2022.
Two years later, the Maun-based athlete is an African champion and on his way to the Olympics, the first Motswana hurdler to qualify for the world’s greatest sporting games.
It is quite a story, the start of an exciting new chapter for the country’s most successful sporting code.
Ntweng is quietly confident this is just the beginning!
Casting his mind back to where it all began, in an exclusive interview with Voice Sport this week, the history-making hurdler reveals he only took up the discipline on the advice of his coach.
“He told me that I can be a good hurdler because I have good qualities that can make me go far in hurdling. A good hurdler must have 800m endurance and 400m strength. You need to have a good hurdle technique and rhythm. Mentally you have to be strong because hurdling is more demanding,” says Ntweng, who grew up idolizing the Jamaican great, Usain Bolt.
“During my schooling days I specialised in 100m and 200m sprints; Bolt was the one we all looked up to!” recalls the Paris-bound athlete, speaking on Wednesday afternoon after his latest training session.
Before making the move to the hurdles, the speedster had already enjoyed success on the track and was part of the 4x400m relay team that won the National Championships in 2022 alongside: Leungo Scotch, Anthony Pesela and Bayapo Ndori.
Full of promise, Ntweng’s career exploded, making the transition to hurdles with ease.
That same year, he managed a respectable 7th place finish at the Africa Senior Championships in Mauritius.
It was a sign of things to come.
Last month, he hurdled his way to African Gold in Cameroon, going one better than the silver he managed at the All Africa Games in Ghana back in March.
Although Ntweng failed to run the required qualifying time of 48.70 seconds, missing out by just six-hundredths of a second at the National Championships in May, the 400m hurdler powered his way to Paris thanks to his world ranking.
Despite his relative inexperience, the high-flyer is already up to 24th in the rankings.
With the top 40 assured of a spot at the Games, Ntweng made it with space to spare.
Now, the two-time national champion has his sights set firmly on France, his focus on bettering his national record time of 48.76.
The rest will take care of itself.
“Qualifying for the Olympics feels so good; getting to this stage makes all the hard work over the years worth every minute of sweat. These are my first Olympics and I do not have international experience so I just know that a PB can get me to the final and in the finale anything can happen,” the mild-mannered Maun man tells Voice Sport.
Having been cruelly denied the chance to compete on the global stage before, Ntweng has more motivation than most to fire in France.
Incredibly, the very same year he took up hurdles, Ntweng qualified for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham only to suffer an injury six days before he was due to race.
It is the type of devastating setback that would have broke most people; Ntweng, however, is not most people!
With a steely determination, he rebuilt his career, pushed to greater heights by his Maun BDF teammate and good friend, Kemorena Tisang.
Both men have broken the national record on several occasions.
Although he is excited at the prospect of what’s to come, he admits it would be even sweeter if Tisang had made it to France as well.
Ranked 41st in the world, the 29-year-old missed out by a single place.
“Yes it’s disappointing that Tisang missed qualifying for the Olympics but what I know is that he is one of the best hurdlers in the world and he is going to come back stronger. There is competition between us but there is no rivalry, we just push each other to get to our best. For me it’s a blessing to have him as my friend and training partner,” concludes the humble hurdler.
Fast and fearless, his name carved forever in the history books of Botswana athletics, Ntweng now prepares for the greatest hurdle of them all: the Olympic Games.
Team BW, which includes nine athletes: Letsile Tebogo, Basung Kebinatshipi, Tshepiso Masalela, Kethobogile Hangira, Tumo Nkape, Ndori, Scotch, Ntweng, Oratile Nowe (the sole female) and the men’s 4x400m relay team, left for Paris on Thursday.
The Olympics run from 26 July to 11 August; God Speed from all at Voice Sport.
