FOR nearly two decades, the world 400m sprint record stood.
That is until South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk tore across the Olympic track to take victory and the gold medal on Sunday, 14 August.
The 24-year-old, who was at the Defy head office in Jacobs recently as part of the ‘Defyning Memories’ campaign, won the race in a time of 43.03 seconds, beating the American Michael Johnson’s 17-year-old world record of 43.18 and Olympic record of 43.49.
According to the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc), this gold medal is the first for South Africa in track events since the country’s readmission to world sport in 1992.
Reporting for Sascoc, Mark Etheridge said speaking afterwards, Van Niekerk was still shell-shocked.
“I’d love to tell you guys more but I honestly can’t remember the race – I’ll have to go back and watch it on television. All I know is that I left it all out there tonight.
In terms of strategy it was just to go and do my best. I just went for it
I left it in God’s hands here at a challenging Olympics. I ran blind the whole race, I still don’t know what happened out there but it was just so awesome to be here and be inspired by guys like Usain Bolt, Michael Johnson, and tonight, guys who I ran against like Kirani James and LaShawn Merritt.
I struggled with a few niggles and nerves here but I had my whole family here to share this opportunity. What I can remember is that I thought someone would catch me, it was quite lonely out there and I thought ‘what’s going on?’, but I kept on pushing and even dived a bit for the finish line.
In terms of strategy it was just to go and do my best. I just went for it. When I saw the time I was really amazed. I went out there for any medal tonight. I just wanted a top three, I got that, a world record and a lifetime best.”
South Africa has won seven medals in the Rio Olympics, up until Monday, 15 August, putting the country in 24th place in the medal standings. Along with Van Niekerk’s gold medal, SA has a silver medal in the athletics; three silver in swimming; one silver in rowing and a bronze in rugby sevens. Caster Semenya is yet to blaze her trail in track events on Wednesday though.
At the head of the Olympics’ leader board is the United States, followed by Great Britain, with China in third.
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