South African record holder and long sprint superstar Wayde Van Niekerk who for a full day held the African 400 meters record till it fell again to Botswana Star Isaac Makwala went head to head with the African record holder in the 400 meters at the Sainsbury Anniversary Games in London and got the better of the Botswana star as he won in a comfortable 44.63seconds.
Makwala who went out like a lightning bolt for the first 300 meters had a solid lead ahead of the South African but he was relatively spent and had nothing in the tank to hold off his competition in the last 80 meters as Van Niekerk, David Verburg of the USA and Chris Brown of the Bahamas came and passed him up leaving him to settle for 4th place with a time of 45.29 seconds.
Makwala who went out like a lightning bolt for the first 300 meters had a solid lead ahead of the South African but he was relatively spent and had nothing in the tank to hold off his competition in the last 80 meters as Van Niekerk, David Verburg of the USA and Chris Brown of the Bahamas came and passed him up leaving him to settle for 4th place with a time of 45.29 seconds.
Van Niekerk now a global force in the quartermile and the 200 meters is the current record holder of the 200 and 400 meters for South Africa and will be one of the favorites to take Gold come Beijing this August in the 400 meters.
By: Leslie Koroma
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