Wayde’s star is shining brightly

When someone of the calibre of eighttime Olympic gold medallist and 11time world champion Usain Bolt tips another athlete for stardom, you tend to sit up and take notice. Bolt, in his final season of a wonderful career, this week said he expected South Africa’s 400m Olympic champion Wayde van Niekerk “to take over from me”.

Before Wednesday evening at the Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava in the Czech Republic, Van Niekerk promised to do the ridiculous. He certainly delivered as he set a new world best in the 300m, racing to a new lightning-quick time of 30.81, which edged former American sprinter Michael Johnson’s 17-year “record” by 0.04.

The 24-year-old South African now holds the fastest times in the 300m and 400m – another milestone Johnson held for 17 years before he bettered the time with his spectacular Olympic triumph in the outside lane in Rio de Janeiro last year. He is also the only athlete to break 10 seconds for the 100m, 20 seconds for the 200m and 44 seconds for the 400m.

After the South African sprinter’s fireworks on Wednesday, Bolt didn’t hesitate when asked whether Van Niekerk is his likely successor.

“Yeah for sure,” the Jamaican said. “He’s shown he’s ready for the challenge. He’s really down to earth, he’s really humble, he’s a great person. He listens and wants to be good and if he continues like this he’ll take over track and field.”

Sadly, the International Association of Athletics Federations do not recognise performances over the unofficial distance of 300m and the time will stand as a world “best”, rather than a record. Still, Van Niekerk has made his point in all of the events he has tackled.

With just more than a month before the World Athletics Championships in London, the possibility of a rare 200m/400m double is certainly not out of his reach.