Wayde van Niekerk is the new one-lap king after smashing Michael Johnson’s 17-year-old 400 metres world record en route to Olympic gold.
Sunday’s final always promised to be a thrilling race as Van Niekerk, LaShawn Merritt and Kirani James vied for glory, just as they did in last year’s captivating World Championship final.
The South African won in Beijing and did so again in Rio de Janeiro, not only clinching gold but doing so in a world-record time of 43.03 seconds – obliterating Johnson’s run of 43.18 from 1999.
Van Niekerk flew out of the blocks and showed no let-up as London 2012 champion James and 2008 gold medallist Merritt followed him home – all the more remarkable given he was running from lane eight.
Both set season’s bests but there was no stopping the South African, who in March became the first athlete to have run sub-10 100m, sub-20 200m and sub-44 400m.
