3. Wayde Van Niekerk may be the next star athlete after Usain Bolt
In 2015, Usain Bolt announced that he would be retiring from the sport after the London 2017 World Championships, which inevitably raised questions as to who the next star athlete might be, especially in terms of producing record breaking performances like the Jamaican did.
The answer to this puzzle might just come in the form of a certain South African sprinter, Wayde Van Niekerk. The world began to take notice of the 24-year old at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing where he surprisingly won the 400m GOLD in a very fast time of 43.48s. While many assumed then that his 2015 performance was a fluke, Van Niekerk completely erased those assumptions in 2016.
Photo Credit: Making of Champions/PaV Media
He first showed a glimpse of what was to come when he raced to the South African College Championships 100m title, stopping the clock at 9.98s, thereby becoming the first man ever to run a sub-10s in the 100m, sub-20s in the 200m and sub-44s in the 400m.
He further cemented his name in the annals of Athletics history at the Rio Olympics, setting a new World Record (WR) of 43.03s to shatter Micheal Johnson’s long standing record of 43.18s, and becoming Africa’s first Olympic 400m Champion in nearly 100 years.
This proves that the South African can as well threaten Bolt’s WRs in both the 100/200m, should he decide to focus mainly on both, and not the 400m.
Though the speedster doesn’t possess the glamour and showmanship Bolt brought to the Track, he has shown that he’s ready to take over the sport by churning out mind-blowing performances in his career, just like the multiple record holder did.
