MAKWALA’S THE SPLASH HIT
Reprieved sprinter is ‘fuelled by anger’
THE loneliness of the short-distance runner certainly captured the attention of the London crowd here last night.
They knew Isaac Makwala had been denied the opportunity to contest the 400m final the previous evening because medical officials had said he had contracted the highly contagious norovirus.
Just as they knew he had declared himself fit to run, only for those officials to turn him away at the entrance to the stadium amid cries of sabotage and conspiracy and the chaos of a World Athletics Championships that seems to become more bizarre by the day.
But they also knew the size of the task facing him here last night after being given a most extraordinary, seemingly unprecedented reprieve to resume his quest for gold in the 200m — one that resulted in the IAAF AAF being accused of a lack ck of professionalism.
If Makwala wanted d to participate in last night’s semi-finals after missing Monday’s heats because of his illness, he had to run asolo200m inn the lane he had been n given two days earlier er — seven — in less thanhan 20.53sec. For an athleteete of Makwal a’ s calibre, that would not normallyll beb a problem.
He is the fastest man in the world this year, after all. Not to mention the first man in history to run a sub-20 second 200m and sub-44 second 400 mon the same night.
But Michael Johnson, who has emerged as Makwala’s champion these past two days and someone who dared suggest the IAAF had made their decision to guarantee victory for Wayde van Niekerk, took one look at the wet, windy and decidedly chilly conditions and declared it ‘a tall order’.
Out of quarantine and out there on the track, Makwala stood tall. He lookedl briefly beyond the deluge to the heavens, crossedc himselfh and ththen took up hihis position in the blocks. ThThe London StadiumStadiu fell silent at that momentm but the starter’s gun not only ignited the power in Makwala’s muscular frame but sparked a tremendous roar from the stands. If he was fuelled by ‘anger’, as he said afterwards, he maintained his composure quite brilliantly. Makwala accelerated beautifully around the curve before driving those arms, one covered in Lycra, through the driving rain in a mesmerising race against time that ended with the sprinter crossing the line with time to spare. After seeing the clock stop at 20.20, Makwala rattled off five press- ups, saluted and then disappeared down the tunnel in preparation for a semi-final race that was due to start little more than two hours later.
He said: ‘I am running with anger. I still want to run my 400m — that is my race. I want the IAAF to give me another chance. I am still running heartbroken. I wish the IAAF had taken the decision to let me run my 400m race first. I was ready to run the 400m. The 400 is the race that I am training for, I do the 200 sometimes.’
Had the IAAF acted in a bid to clear up the mess from the previous evening and what amounted to yet another PR own goal for the governing body? The statement they issued yesterday afternoon suggested not.
‘The IAAF has received a written request from the Botswanan federation for Isaac Makwala to compete in the 200 metres,’ it said.
‘Given his quarantine period expired at 14:00 hrs today, and following a medical examination which has declared him fit to compete, we have agreed under our existing rules that assuming he makes the qualification time, he will run in the 200m semi-final round this evening. No athletes already qualified for the semi-final will be adversely affected.’
The rules, as the IAAF said, do seem to cover such an eventuality. If an athlete is armed with a medical certificate and has been ‘ unable to compete after confirmations closed or after competing in a previous round’ they ‘will be able to compete in further events on a subsequent day of the competition’.
But there remained both a sense of farce and a widespread response that was one of incredulity.
Dai Greene, the former 400m hurdles world champion, said: ‘It seems a strange thing to do. For him to be deemed not fit for the first round and then being told he can come back to try to compete is weird. Does this imply they [the IAAF] were at fault the first time and this is them trying to give him a second chance? It’s really messy and it lacks professionalism.’
With the lanes already allocated for the other semi- finalists, Makwala was given lane one and only a rival with a heart of stone would have begrudged him being there. Van Niekerk watched his solo run while waiting for the 400m medal ceremony and he responded to Makwala’s finishing time with warm applause.
It was nothing, however, compared to the response Makwala got when he followed his solo run with another impressive performance, finishing second in the opening semi-final in 20.14 and marking his progression to this evening’s final with a celebratory point to the sky.
He finished just ahead of Great Britain’s increasingly impressive Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, who will also race tonight as the quickest of the two fastest losers.
That the second quickest of that pair was a surprisingly sluggish Van Niekerk was more than a little surprising, and would suggest the South African will not emulate Johnson in securing a rare 200m400m double. Just as it might well have convinced Johnson there was indeed something in his conspiracy theory.