3. WAYDE VAN NIEKERK
He was without doubt one of the top performers at the Rio Olympics, and deserves to be on the No.3 spot by our reckoning. Wayde Van Niekerk has become something of an enigma since racing to GOLD at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing in a scorching time of 43.48s to finish ahead of USA’s LaShawn Merritt and Kirani James of Grenada, before collapsing on the track in sheer exhaustion.
Van Niekerk was quite picky with his races this year, competing mostly at meets in South Africa. He opened his season in March and clocked a fast time of 9.98s in the 100m, becoming the first athlete in history to break 10s in the 100m, 20s in the 200m, and 44s in the 400m. The 24-year old then competed in the African Championships which was hosted by his country, racing only in the 200m and 4x100m.
Nevertheless he was the man to beat as he posted a time of 20.02s to win the title, before running a decisive second leg for the South African 4x100m relay team, inspiring them to victory in 38.84s. He thereafter competed in the Diamond League (DL) meetings in Rome and Monaco, clocking 44.19s and 44.12s respectively, and then it was time for the biggest sporting fiesta of the year.
The men’s 400m final had already been predicted to be one of the most explosive events at Rio 2016, almost matching the men’s 100m in terms of the anticipation that had mounted prior to the race. Being drawn in Lane 8 eventually proved to be a blessing in disguise for Van Niekerk who ran the race of his life, running ‘blind’ until he crossed the finishing line in a mind blowing time of 43.03s, eclipsing both the World (43.18s) and Olympic Records (43.49s) set by Michael Johnson.
He became the only man to have won the Olympic or World 400m from Lane 8. James and Merritt followed with a distant 43.76s and 43.85s respectively. Afterwards he said: “Once I got drawn into Lane 8 I wasn’t really too fazed about it. I just saw it as another race. I was way too focused to think that because I was in Lane 8 it was a disadvantage or whatever. I was really just focused on going out there and giving it my best effort.”
Van Niekerk is also looking forward to breaking his World Record (WR) soon: “I always believe I can do better, so I would love to believe that I can be the next person to smash the record again. I’m only 24 years old. I’ve got so much more I need to do, so much more growing to do. I’m actually still a baby when it comes to the 400m. I’ve only been doing it three years now and I still feel like I’ve got so much more to prove.”
