Wayde van Niekerk was almost jogging as he crossed the finishing line such was the dominance of the South African in the 400 metres last night and he could hardly be blamed for that as he bids to establish himself as the superman of this World Championships.
As if what he was taking on was not tough enough he was presented with an extra complication when the lane outside him was left vacant because of the unfortunate and deeply controversial absence of Botswana’s Isaac Makwala who was distraught after being prevented by IAAF doctors from taking part because they adjudged him to be among the sufferers of the norovirus bug that has become a major issue at these championships.
“It is with a bleeding heart that I formally announce that I will not be part of the 400m final,” Makwala, who was supported in his argument by his federation, later wrote on Facebook.
“I arrived at the stadium today ready to run but I found a trap set there ... and denied entrance. I still maintain I am not sick and have never been tested by any doctor. I shall rise again.”
That could have proved a major distraction both on and off the track for van Niekerk but he still ran with the smoothness that has seen him establish himself as one of the modern greats as, with ease, he steadily overhauled Demish Gaye and Baboloki Thebe, the remaining men outside him and comfortably held off Steven Gardiner, the Bahamian who had been the only man to run under 44 seconds in the semi-finals.
There was little sign of what was to come when van Niekerk failed to reach the 200 metres final at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Already 22 years old, the South African was highly respected, claiming a silver medal in the 400 metres, but nothing to hint at what was set to happen in the next two years.
It was at the last World Championships in Beijing that he served notice, beating one of the greats of the era, former Olympic and two time previous world champion LaShawn Merritt into second place, but more notably doing so in the fourth fastest time ever. After a decade of competing at the top of his sport, Merritt’s personal best was not enough.
Then came last year’s Olympics in Rio and perhaps the biggest shock of the event when, drawn in the hated outside lane, van Niekerk smashed the 400m world record, his 43.03-second run knocking more than a tenth of a second off the previous mark set by the great Michael Johnson 17 years earlier.
That was more than enough to earn him the respect of having the original schedule revised by organisers to accommodate his bid to match Johnson by claiming a 200 metres and 400 metres double, but what confronted him could still hardly be more challenging in the two long sprints.
He began on Saturday morning in the 400 metres heats, ran the semi-finals in the evening and the heats of the 200 metres on Tuesday before last night’s final.
With that out of the way he now contests the 200 metres semis tonight and, barring accidents, the final on Thursday, while there is still the potential for the first man ever to have run a sub-10 second 100 metres, sub-20 second 200 metres and sub-44 second 400 metres, to be heavily involved in the relays at the weekend.
In now customary fashion van Niekerk spent some time lying on the track afterwards, but expressed confidence that he will be fully fit to race on.
“I’ve got a good team, we’ll have to recover after this and get back to work tomorrow,” he said.
Earlier on, Kyle Langford became, in the 800 metres, the latest to come tantalisingly close to winning a second medal for the home team when, like Callum Hawkins in Sunday’s marathon and Laura Muir in the 1500 metres on Monday evening, he finished in fourth position.
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