Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo said on Tuesday he would let his “legs do the talking” in his battle with brash American Noah Lyles at the World Championships in Tokyo.
The softly spoken Botswanan won his country’s first Olympic gold medal in any sport in Paris last year, where Lyles finished third.
Tebogo labelled his flamboyant American rival “arrogant” after the race, and Lyles’s outsized character is likely to command the global spotlight again when the World Championships begin on Saturday.
Tebogo said he was comfortable with having “different personalities” in the sport, as he took part in an event with children at a primary school in Tokyo.
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“I’m one person who always shies away from the media, but the sport forces me to step up, up my game into becoming a sports personality,” said the 22-year-old.
“At the end of the day, it’s all about what do you want to see: to be on the spotlight or off the spotlight.
“For me, I choose off the spotlight and then just my legs do the talking.”
Lyles got the better of Tebogo in the 200m in the Diamond League finals in Zurich two weeks ago, edging the Botswanan by two-hundredths of a second.
The pair are also set to square off in the 100m in Tokyo.
Tebogo is looking to win his first world title after picking up silver in the 100m and bronze in the 200m in Budapest two years ago.
He said he felt like “a hero” to Botswanans after his historic Olympic success but vowed not to change his approach in Tokyo.
“Once you invite pressure inside yourself, then it means you are not doing it for yourself, you are doing it for the people,” he said.
“Yes, you should do it for the people but it’s you first and then the people later.
“Once you put pressure inside yourself, it means you have done something wrong.”
Tebogo has said that athletics saved him from a life of crime and he is a global ambassador for the Kids Athletics development programme.
He was all smiles during his school visit, banging a traditional Japanese drum to start a race that saw about 100 children scramble under nets and tip-toe over balance beams.
He said he felt a responsibility to “inspire kids all over the world”.
“I’m so excited to see how the Japanese relay culture works and I really can’t wait to work with these kids because we had a fun time in Botswana,” said Tebogo.
“I believe we’re also going to have fun here.”