Another SA Sprint Record For Golden Boy Wayde


Mike Finch |

South Africa’s golden boy of the track, Wayde van Niekerk, added another South African record to his collection in Kingston, Jamaica, late on Saturday night. – By Mark Etheridge

Picture of Van Niekerk courtesy of the Jamaica Gleaner.
Picture of Van Niekerk courtesy of the Jamaica Gleaner.

Running the 2nd Racers Grand Prix event, the Bloemfontein local clocked 19.84 seconds for the victory, beating 2014 Commonwealth Games champion Rasheed Dwyer by 0.27sec.

Van Niekerk started from lane four and led the way around the bend, opening the gap even further before looking to ease up over the final 10m.

Van Niekerk’s new SA record beats 2012 Olympic 200m finalist Anaso Jobodwana’s old mark by 0.03sec.

It was also a new personal best for Olympic 400m gold medallist Van Niekerk, whose previous best was the 19.90sec when he won this year’s national title in Potchefstroom two months ago.

‘This is a positive step forward, but I know there’s still quite of bit of work to be done,’ Van Niekerk told Reuters.

Van Niekerk, whose new best is also a world-leader for 2017, now owns the 200, 300 and 400m national marks.

SA’s other sprint record-holder Akani Simbine added a silver when he came second in the 100m. The national 100m champion ran just 0.03sec behind the host nation’s Yohan Blake.

Blake’s fellow Jamaican, eight-time Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt ran his final race on home soil on Saturday, clocking 10.03sec in what he admitted was an extremely nervous event. Bolt intends retiring after next month’s IAAF World Championships in London.

Article originally appeared on SASCOC.

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