{"id":37348,"date":"2026-06-17T11:27:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T09:27:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=37348"},"modified":"2026-06-17T11:27:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T09:27:33","slug":"botswana-sprinter-matakule-punches-ticket-to-world-u20-championships","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/botswana-sprinter-matakule-punches-ticket-to-world-u20-championships\/","title":{"rendered":"Botswana sprinter Matakule punches ticket to World U20 Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Botswana\u2019s rising track star Wazha Matakule has officially booked his spot at the World Athletics U20 Championships in the United States after a standout performance at the Sua Pan track and field meet.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Lions Dean Athletics Club sprinter dug deep in the 200m race, stopping the clock at a sharp 21.24 seconds. The blistering run was just enough to edge past the strict international qualifying standard of 21.25 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>With that performance, Matakule will be heading to Eugene, Oregon, to compete against the world&#8217;s best young athletes from August 4 to 9.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The under-18 and under-20 meet also served as a high-stakes training ground for top-tier talent, attracting members of Botswana&#8217;s national women&#8217;s 400m squad who used the event to sharpen up ahead of the Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8212;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":34734,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-37348","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Wazha Matakule has officially booked his spot at the World Athletics U20 Championships","published_date":"2026-06-17 11:17:23","news_description":"Wazha Matakule has officially booked his spot at the World Athletics U20 Championships","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37349,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37348\/revisions\/37349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=37348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}