South African athlete Wayde van Niekerk is running his way into history books – quite literally.
Wayde’s latest accolade saw him break another Michael Johnson record when he ran the 300 m in 30.81 seconds, during the Golden Spike meet in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
Johnson’s record was 30.85, set in 2000.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khLGEWMVHY0
Usain Bolt is now the third fastest athlete to run over that distance. He recorded a time of 30.97 in May 2010 at said Golden Spike meet in Ostrava.
Wayde is also the only man in history to run 10sec for the 100m, 20sec for the 200m and 44sec for the 400m – an enormous feat.
.@WaydeDreamer is now the first man in history to go:
sub-10 for 100m
sub-20 for 200m
sub-31 for 300m
sub-44 for 400m— IAAF (@iaaforg) June 28, 2017
Congratulations @WaydeDreamer! ?
Making history! ? pic.twitter.com/5eU3WfF6rn
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) June 29, 2017
Who's hiding behind @usainbolt?! It's @WaydeDreamer the 1st man ever to go:
sub-10 for 100m
sub-20 for 200m
sub-31 for 300m
sub-44 for 400m pic.twitter.com/t80NQqkKFC— Laureus (@LaureusSport) June 28, 2017
As if his performance at the Golden Spike meet in Ostrava was not enough, Wayde went on to break a world record for 2017 at the Diamond League meet in Lausanne, Switzerland where he ran 400m in 43.62 seconds.
Thanks for a great meet @Diamond_League #Lausanne and thank you for everyone's massive support! ??#RoadToTheFinal pic.twitter.com/D8irDtASAr
— Wayde van Niekerk (@WaydeDreamer) July 7, 2017
Wayde has only run the 400m faster on two occasions: when he won his world title in Beijing in 2015; the other was a year later when he won Olympic gold.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khLGEWMVHY0
He is clearly in good form and all eyes will be on him going forward, as many seem to believe he is the next big thing to follow the ‘Usain Bolt act’ – one which will be tough to beat no doubt.
But at this stage, it would appear all things are possible for ‘King Wayde’.