“People are expecting a lot from me,” admits Collen Kebinatshipi. “But I have my own plan.”
The 22-year-old is looking ahead to Saturday’s Xiamen Diamond League, where he’ll face a world-class field in the men’s 400m, the event the Motswana conquered in such spectacular fashion last year, winning World Championship gold in Tokyo in a national record of 43.53.
If that win heightened the expectation that he now carries, it increased again last month when Kebinatshipi blasted to the national 100m title in 9.89 seconds. The race in Xiamen is his first 400m of the Diamond League season, but he knows it’s likely too early to produce real fireworks.
Photo credit: MARTA GORCZYŃSKA for Diamond League AG
“I came here to enjoy myself and see how the fitness level is,” he says. “Then we can go back to training and do more blocks.”
Kebinatshipi and his coach, Chilume ‘Chippa’ Ntshwarang, put a key focus on his speed development early in the season, which was clear at the national championships as he twice clocked 9.89 for 100m in the same day – performances that caught the eyes of the sprinting world.
“It wasn’t really a surprise to me,” says Kebinatshipi. “Early season we said, ‘Let’s put some speed in.’ My training was focused on speed, we did training in the blocks and we predicted it well.
“Coach said I would run 10.0 or 9.9. it shows the speed is there. Now we can go back to the 400 and keep it going. It was for early season, but now we switched everything, I’m preparing for 400 again so we have to balance everything – endurance and speed.”
Photo credit: LIAM BLACKWELL for Diamond League AG
Kebinatshipi’s progress in recent years has been striking, and it comes amid a rise in performance standards in his native country. He says that’s down to “the motivation and inspiration we get from former athletes”, adding that Botswana has “more guys coming up because they see the results” of their compatriots on the world stage.
Kebinatshipi’s entry into athletics came about in primary school. “I was just doing it for fun,” he says. “Then I went to junior school, that’s when I focused more on track.”
In 2019, he met Ntshwarang at a competition and they started working together, and it’s proven a hugely successful coach-athlete relationship. He trains alongside Lee Eppie, a 44.40 athlete who was also part of the team that won the men’s 4x400m world title in Tokyo last year.
“In 2020 we made a decision to focus more on the 400 even though I was scared of it,” he says. “But coach maybe saw something I didn’t see.”
For Kebinatshipi, it has taken many years to learn how to succeed at this level. And it wasn’t just about physical progress.
In 2022, he reached the world U20 400m final in Cali, Colombia, lowering his PB to 45.40 at the age of 18. In 2023, he won gold at the African Championships in 44.91 and also reached the world semi-final in Budapest. In 2024, he became an Olympian in Paris, narrowly missing the 400m final and helping Botswana to Olympic silver in the 4x400m.
But 2025 was when things truly clicked.
Photo credit: LIAM BLACKWELL for Diamond League AG
“I told myself, ‘This is not all about relays this time.’ For sure we’d get a podium finish with our A-game so I told myself, ‘Let me focus on my individual races.’ I was more focused on the rounds at the worlds and in Diamond Leagues I didn’t want to push myself too much too early in the season. It’s not important to me to run a 43 in May if it’s not possible at the end of the season. I knew my plan. September came and I was like, ‘This is the right time.’”
After a scare in his 400m heat in Tokyo, where he only finished fourth in 44.48, he blazed to victory in his semi-final in a national record of 43.61. In the final, he went quicker again, clocking 43.53 to win his first global gold.
“I was always ready but in my mindset and believing in myself, I held myself back a bit in previous races,” he says. “I was a bit afraid to approach the race and execute as my coach told me. I ran the final without pressure, without panicking. I ran 43 so it shows it was a little of holding myself back a bit [before].”
That gold medal had a huge impact – on and off the track.
“A lot of attention, a lot of people approaching me with different things,” he says. “Life has changed since the win. But we still have a lot of work to do. We have to be smarter and know the job is not done. We still have a long way to go.”
Photo credit: MARTA GORCZYŃSKA for Diamond League AG
While there’s now more attention on him, his routine is much the same, Kebinatshipi staying disciplined with his training and, in his spare time, engaging his other great passion.
“I’m a dog lover, a dog breeder,” he says. “That’s what I do most of the time when I’m off. I go and spend some time with the dogs and other animals around the farm.”
For all of his success to date, he has yet to take victory at a Diamond League, but that could well change on Saturday in Xiamen. But regardless of the result, the future looks exceptionally bright and, notably, Kebinatshipi feels he’s nowhere close to his limit.
“There’s a lot of things we still have to improve,” he says. “My speed right now is a lot for me, we have to control it and manage it well. We are growing and I think my peak years will be around 24, 25, 26. That’s when we can do everything we want.”
Cathal Dennehy for Xiamen Diamond League