Wayde ready to ascend throne
Though he admits it has required a difficult juggling act to prepare for his sprint double at the World Championships, speed king Wayde van Niekerk believes he is ready to tackle the arduous task over the next week.
While 100m sprinters and long jumpers were expected to steal the headlines over the first two days of competition, with South Africa tipped to compete for the podium in both disciplines tonight, Van Niekerk was set to open his account in today’s 400m heats.
“I feel like I’m currently in the best shape I can be for this season, and I believe I can do great things,” Van Niekerk, also due to race the 200m event, said at an Adidas media conference.
“But obviously it’s a new challenge, a new year, a new competition, and I think we’re just going to have to take it round by round.”
With Jamaican legend Usain Bolt due to compete in the last individual race of his career tonight, Van Niekerk felt he was ready to take his place on the throne as the new monarch of international sprinting.
However, though he had been compared to US great Michael Johnson and was closing the gap on Bolt, Van Niekerk said he was trying to make his own mark by flaunting his versatility over the 100m, 200m and 400m distances, unlike his predecessors who concentrated on specific distances.
“I’ve still got a lot of areas to work on and fine-tuning to do to reach the heights that Usain has in the 100m and 200m,” said the one-lap world record holder.
“If you look at the 400m, yes I’ve reached heights that nobody else has, but at the same time I’m definitely going to go out there and try build a new image with who I am, what I believe in, and my gifts and talents.”