The world will eagerly be awaiting to see what Wayde van Niekerk can do in his first international 400m since he set the world record over the distance when winning the World and Olympic title in Rio last year. – Phil Minshull, IAAF

Wayde van Niekerk will be lining up on Thursday night at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Lausanne for his first international 400m since he broke the World and Olympic Record.

Van Niekerk broke Michael Johnson’s 400m world record with a 43.03 performance in Rio, while running blind from lane eight, but then brought to his 2016 season to an abrupt end. He has so far restricted his 400m races this year to some relatively low-key domestic outings in South Africa during March and April.

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Nevertheless, he is the only sprinter in history to have run faster than 10 seconds for 100m, 20 seconds for 200m and 44 seconds for 400m showed he was back in great shape when he took another of Johnson’s accolades, the 300m world best, at the IAAF World Challenge meeting in Ostrava last week.

It may not be a championship distance but Johnson’s former mark of 30.85 – ironically set at altitude in South Africa – had been on the books since 2000 and withstood the attentions of the likes of Usain Bolt and LaShawn Merritt until Van Niekerk sliced 0.04 from it last Wednesday.

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Johnson still holds the Athletissima meeting record of 43.66 from 1996, but it is worth noting ahead of Van Niekerk’s that the IAAF Diamond League record was set on this track in 2014: 43.74 by Kirani James.

Other notable South African runners to watch are Henricho Bruintjies and Akani Simbine taking on the 100m at 09:20pm.

Catch Wayde running the 400m on SS8 at 09:40pm on Thursday, 6 July.

Article originally appeared on iaaf.com by Phil Minshull. 

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