“I’ve dreamed of this medal since forever”.
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Van Niekerk crossed the line a good five metres ahead of 2012 champion Kirani James and held his hands to his head in disbelief at his time before being embraced by the Grenadian, who took silver in 43.76.
“I’m happy to be part of a race that made history”, James stated. “We have put this sport on a pedestal”. “Usually, what happens is the last 100 (meters) guys start to slow down a little bit, but he just kept going”. It shows that there’s always room for guys to improve.
Merritt posted second fastest time in Saturday’s semifinals after James and was the only American to advance to final.
Bolt was quick to congratulate Van Niekerk, with the latter revealing he had been inspired by the world’s fastest man during a training camp in Jamaica. Commentating on the race for the BBC, Michael Johnson said early this morning that no runner has ever won a championship in the 400m from this lane. This young man has done something truly special.
“It gave me so much motivation to keep on pushing, keep on pushing, and as I got to the finish line I just dove for the finish line and right after that I said “don’t sit, don’t sit”, so I went on my knees and thanked the Lord and right after that I went to my family and thanked everyone for tonight”.
“Being out in lane eight helped him, he was away from James and Merritt”. The thing is, we just came off an wonderful performance and I think all of us are ready to enjoy that a little bit after a long time of working really hard.
“Oh my god!” Johnson said.
Van Niekirk ran in 43.03 seconds to break Johnson’s record of 43.18 seconds.
“It was a insane race, a great moment in history”.
“I ran my last 200m too slowly”. I need to see the race to believe it.
“He ran his heart out”.
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Speaking in the lead-up to the Games about the responsibility that comes with handling a world and now Olympic champion, Botha told South Africa’s City Press: “I wouldn’t say I’m afraid. but I have such a big responsibility to get this athlete to develop to his full potential”.
