2) Wayde Van Niekerk
Remember when in Part 1 of the Top 10 African athletes we mentioned that two Africans broke World Records (WR)? Well as you might have guessed, we were obviously referring to Wayde Van Niekerk as one of the two.
This is not the first time Van Niekerk will be making our list. This year he leaps two places from 4th in 2015 and is now ranked No.2 on our list. If you thought that 2015 was a flash in the pan, Van Niekerk came back this year and further etched his name in the folklore of Athletics, cementing his status as the best quarter-miler in history.
(Photo Credit: Making of Champions/PaV Media)
Last year while clinching the 400m world title with a time of 43.48s, he became the highest ranked quarter miler who is not from the USA, then in 6th place in the world. But this year, he tops the food chain.
Van Niekerk stunned the whole world when during the Olympics he shattered Michael Johnson’s long standing WR of 43.18s, going on to set a new one of 43.03s. It wasn’t just that it was a WR; what made it even more mind-blowing is the fact that he ran a blind race from Lane 8.
Van Niekerk ran so well that Kirani James and LaShawn Merrit who came in 2nd and 3rd with times of 43.76s and 43.85s respectively could have won any other race on another day with the times they posted. Van Niekerk didn’t just take Johnson’s WR, he also took his Olympic Record (OR) of 43.48s.
To cap off an impressive year, Van Niekerk got nominated for the Male Athlete of the Year Award, making it to the final three, with Jamaica’s Usain Bolt eventually winning the award. With what he has achieved in the last two years, becoming the first African athlete to win the men’s 400m World and Olympic title, there is no doubt that he could be named Athlete of the Year in the near future.
This year, Van Niekerk became the first athlete in history to go under 10s in the 100m, 20s in the 200m and 44s in the 400m. The 24-year old South African who is an avid football fan, supporting Liverpool FC, could even go on to better his own WR with the way he is going.
