Sparkling jewel , Amantle Montsho, 24, last week broke world record and set several continental records tumbling as she became the new fastest woman in the world in the 400m at the African Championships in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The first Botswana woman to go professional four years ago thanks to IOC scholarship that took her to Senegal, supplanted Sanya Richards(Jamaica) as the fastest woman in the world this year, consolidating her newly found status as the first Botswana woman to reach the world elite level. On her way to winning a second continental Gold medal, following her success at the All Africa Games in Algeria last year, Montsho ran 49.83 seconds, beating the Championship record of 50.07 set ten years ago by Nigeria’s Falilat Ogunkoya.

It was a huge improvement for Montsho who finished as runner-up to 2001 world champion Amy Mbacke Thiam, of Senegal, in the last African Championships, in 2006. When she won gold in Algiers last year Montsho recorded 51.13, a new national record, and went on to break the national record for the fourth time in 2007 (50.90) as she narrowly failed to reach the final of the World Championships in Osaka.
Only four years ago, Montsho became the first Botswana woman to participate at the Athens Olympics under special consideration by the International Olympic Committee, in a move that was geared towards promoting countries like Botswana to give women athletes a chance. She was entered with the wild card for countries without qualified athletes. Now she has already booked her place in Beijing Olympics coming in two months time.