The One and Only: Botswana’s Amantle Montsho Seeks Glory in Punishing Race

They stretched and shook their limbs behind the starting blocks, the relaxing shimmy before the 50-second explosion. Among them: Sanya Richards-Ross of the United States, the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist; Novlene Williams-Mills of Jamaica, a top talent from a country that produces world-class runners the way Stanford produces computer programmers; and Amantle Montsho, the reigning world champion.

Montsho, 29, is from a rural village in Botswana, an African country not known for elite athletes. She trains in near isolation in Dakar, Senegal, working day after day to refine her technique in the name of winning races, most important the one this summer at the Olympics in London. She is the first female professional athlete in the country, which has not won an Olympic medal in any sport.

What, exactly, is it that makes a runner like Montsho excel at the 400?

Montsho and her peers come from starkly different backgrounds representing a variety of cultures, personal experiences and training regimens. But once the starting gun was fired at the Prefontaine Classic here in June, they remained in near lock step over 400 meters, separated at the finish line by fractions of a second.

The 400 is “the most unique race,” said Thomas Best, a professor of family medicine and a co-director of sports medicine at Ohio State University. “The reason is that you are activating all the energy systems and energy pathways known to man. Therein lies the real challenge.”

When a runner like Montsho settles into the starting blocks, she looks “like a quadrupedal animal,” said Stephen Simons, a director of sports medicine at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in South Bend, Ind., and the team physician for Notre Dame track and field.

“They’re leaned over, hands on the track, butt up in the air,” he said. “The shoulders are over the hands, the elbows aren’t locked. Body weight is evenly spread to feet and hands. The back is flat, and the lower leg is at a 45-degree angle.”

With the bang of the gun, the eight women were off, Montsho in Lane 3, Richards-Ross to her right in Lane 4.

“You’ll have that explosive reaction,” Simons said. “The starting posture with the gluteal muscles up high pulls the femur back, putting a premium on the gluteal muscles for the first quarter of the race, especially as they start out of the blocks.”

The start is considered a transition, with runners not yet reaching their full speeds until their torsos rise to become perpendicular with the track.

Montsho considers herself a slow starter and a strong finisher. That runs counter to many of her competitors, who may have more experience running the 100 and the 200 and struggle for the extra push toward the finish line of the 400.

For months at a training facility in Dakar, Montsho’s coach, Anthony Koffi, had her run starting drills, aimed at shortening her response time.

During one practice, Koffi had his runners line up behind the starting line. He held two pens behind his back. If he held up the yellow one, the runners were to start. If he held up a blue pen and they started, they had to do 20 push-ups.

He held up his hand — with no pens — and a few runners, but not Montsho, jolted forward. She laughed. He held up the yellow pen and she triggered forward.

Then he held up both pens at the same time. All the runners sprang forward. “No!” Koffi said. Just the yellow! They all laughed, then retreated to their starting positions. “You must concentrate!” he yelled.

“The games help us,” Montsho said.

Any shortcomings in her starts are certainly not a result of her body type.

In 2005, Peter Weyand, an associate professor of applied physiology and biomechanics at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, examined the height and weight ratios of elite sprinters. Using data over 15 years for the top 15 performers in the event, Weyand found that for female 400-meter runners, the average was 5 feet 8 inches and 127 pounds.

Montsho is about 5-9 and 134 pounds.

The Heart of the Race

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