Exploding out of the blocks in lane eight, Wayde van Niekerk didn’t see another runner during the entire Olympic 400-meter final. He didn’t need to. It was just him against the clock.
The South African sprinter broke Michael Johnson’s 17-year-old world record yesterday [Macau time] in Rio de Janeiro, leaving two of the greatest one-lap runners of this era in his dust. Van Niekerk finished in 43.03 seconds — 0.15 seconds faster than Johnson ran on Aug. 26, 1999, in Seville, Spain. To think, Johnson’s mark was considered one of the almost untouchable records in track.
“I thought someone was going to catch me,” Van Niekerk explained. “I felt very alone at the end.”
The 24-year-old Van Niekerk leaned at the finish line, which he really didn’t need to do as Kirani James of Grenada and LaShawn Merritt of the Unites States weren’t even in the picture. James, the defending Olympic champion, finished with the silver and Merritt, who won gold eight years ago in Beijing, hung on for bronze as he staggered across the line.
Van Niekerk drove a wedge in the rivalry between James and Merritt at the world championships last August, when he beat them both with such a lung-searing performance that he left the track on a stretcher. Now, he’s the fastest ever.
Instead of collapsing at the finish this time, Van Niekerk dropped to one knee and put his head in his hands. Moments later, he draped a South African flag around his shoulders and took off his spikes. As he did so, Van Niekerk pointed at the clock to make sure everyone saw his time. Hard to miss. Pat Graham, AP
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