Lee Eppie stood at the end of the track in Tokyo, shoulders heaving, a broad grin fixed on his face. There was no medal around his neck—at least not this time in the 400m—but there was something just as valuable: proof that he belonged among the best. In his first-ever World Championship final, Eppie lined up against athletes who treat Diamond League showpieces and Olympic finals like routine. For a young man who once chased a football instead of settling into the staggered blocks, finishing eighth in the world was no small feat.
“Obviously, I feel good,” he told this publication upon the team’s return from Tokyo. “This was my first ever World Championships and for me to go to the final, beating men that always make it to the Diamond League meets and Olympic finals, is a big thing. I feel like I have done something I have always wanted to do—and there’s more to come.”
That belief is grounded in achievement. Eppie was instrumental in Botswana’s 4x400m relay triumph, starting both the semifinal and the final, his drive and rhythm laying the foundation for a gold medal that reaffirmed the country’s dominance in the quarter-mile. Yet this championship was also about his own lane, his own rise.
It is a path that began in Orapa, where Eppie first laced up boots as a footballer before athletics drew him in. By 2016, he was wearing national colours at the African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Games in Swakopmund, Namibia. A bronze medal followed at the 2019 AUSC Games in Gaborone, then silver at the 2023 Africa Senior Championships. Each step sharpened the dream. “I started realising I could make a career out of athletics when I was in Form 4,” he said. “That time I had made the team that represented Botswana at continental level at under-20.”
Along the way, mentors shaped his journey. “Johnson Kubisa is someone that I can credit for my career as it is now,” Eppie said. “And then there is my current coach, Chilume Ntshwarang, who has sacrificed a lot for me, believed in me when nobody did, and took me from running 45s to running 44s, and making it to the World Championships finals.”
Ntshwarang beams with pride when speaking of his athlete. “Eppie has always been there; he is our child,” he recalled. “He took bronze during the 2019 AUSC Games, a silver in the 400m during the 2023 Africa Senior Championships—it shows he is a top performer. He just needed to focus. Studying in the USA, the college season is demanding and very long. Now he is preparing and training without the pressure of too many events. My plan with him was to close the gaps that hindered him, and it worked.”
It has indeed. At 26, Eppie carries a calm determination, aware that the journey is only beginning. “In the future, I want to keep on doing what I’m doing,” he said. “There’s more to come—you’ll see.”
For a nation with a proud 400m pedigree—Amantle Montsho, Isaac Makwala, Bayapo Ndori—the lineage remains strong. Eppie’s breakthrough in Tokyo was his personal triumph, but also a collective promise: another chapter in Botswana’s sprinting story, another glimpse of what the nation can be.
On a warm night, standing among giants, Lee Eppie showed the world that he belongs.
