Olympic athlete Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa has broken a 17-year-old world record with a little help from a 74-year-old great grandmother. He could have very well have run negative splits, meaning that he ran faster in that second 200 than he ran in the first 200, which would make this even more wonderful.
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The 24-year-old’s mother, Odessa Swarts, says she’s overwhelmed.
Bolt’s coach has previously suggested that 400m would be a strong distance for him, but the seven-time Olympic champion suggested a slightly shorter race against Van Niekerk would be a closely matched affair.
There was no sense of bitterness from Johnson, who was left blown away by the South African’s performance. “When I first met her, I was afraid of her”, fellow South African runner Akani Simbine tells the Post, saying she becomes “loving” once you get to know her.
American Johnson also holds the 300m world record, his 30.85sec eclipsing Bolt’s second-best of 30.97, with Van Niekerk lying third in the rankings with 31.03.
Van Niekerk would be equally excited that the captain of Liverpool, Jordan Henderson hailed him on Instagram. “Can he go under 43 seconds?” said Johnson.
“It’s just so unreal, I don’t even think I was in that race tonight, I even had the chance to do a victory lap!”
“Bolt told me in Jamaica: “you will break the world record”, Van Niekerk added. Van Niekerk’s 43.03 was more than seven-tenths of a second quicker than the man in second, defending Olympic champion Kirani James of Grenada, who had to settle for silver in 43.76.
Wayde van Niekirk has previously spoken openly about his Christian faith.
“My coach always wants me to run 400m”, said Bolt, who has often complained at how hard the training for the 400m was. I have never seen anything from 200 to 400 like that.
Not only is Usain Bolt the fastest man in the world over 100 metres, but he’s one of the nicest too.
Van Niekerk looked as stunned as the crowd as he produced the greatest run of all time in the 400m to win gold in Rio.
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Michael Johnson’s 1999 mark of 43.18 seemed safe, but Van Niekerk – running in the unfavoured outside lane eight – crossed the line five metres clear of his nearest rivals in 43.03 seconds.
