South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk won the gold medal in the Men’s 400m sprint event at the Rio Olympics.
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And watching on, of course, was van Niekerk’s coach – a 74-year-old great grandmother who’s been coaching since the 1960s. He is now the world record holder, world champion as well as the Olympic champion in the 400 metres event. Can he go under 43?
Butch broke a 20-year-old record by more than a half-second and put up a time that only two people since Evans had come within one second of.
Gatlin is second fastest, clocking 19.75 last month.
The South African world champion’s Rio victory was scarcely believable as he left two Olympic champions in Kirani James and LaShawn Merritt scrambling for silver back on the horizon while he flew through the line in 43.03 to wipe the floor with Michael Johnson’s record which had stood unopposed for 17 years.
“I wish he would have, because I think he would have given Usain a run for his money right now”, Maurice Greene told Fox Sports. Because after some assaults on the mid-43s around 10 years ago, the times have gotten progressively slower in the past few years.
Alex Naddour, Simone Biles, Madison Kocian and Laurie Hernandez all had big moments upon winning individual Olympic medals in the last 48 hours.
The local newspaper, The Liverpool Echo dubbed Van Niekerk as the club’s fastest fan.
Now, he’s the fastest ever.
The South African had made his presence felt for the first time with the 400m world title past year in Beijing in a then personal-best time of 43.48. He had almost caught up to the runner in lane 6 by the time he reached the second turn, then ate up the entire field around the turn before unleashing into a furious kick in the home stretch.
When asked how fast he could run, van Niekerk’s reply would have been music to the ears of the International Association of Athletics Federations, which has been unable to blow away the cloud of a doping scandal that has overshadowed the sport for the past year. There was no way he could keep it up.
The new world record holder wasn’t thrilled about drawing lane 8, but he didn’t dwell on it.
South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk believes the “sky is the limit” after obliterating the 400 metres world record on the way to Olympic gold.
Bolt said: “That would be a good one over 300m”.
All credit to James and Merritt too.
Not to overlook Jamaica’s Usain Bolt securing his status as the “GOAT” of sprinting with his third consecutive Olympic gold in the 100 in an incredible race, but van Niekerk stole the show Sunday.
Botha said Van Niekerk would have been competitive in the 200m event, “but not in a way we would want”. Could he have done the inconceivable? “We didn’t really talk”, she said, adding, “The more empty the mind is the more focused he is on what he has to do”.
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South Africans did not need much introduction to Wayde as he has been putting their country on the athletics map for a while now.
