South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk broke the world record in the men 400m final in Rio Olympics by posting a time 43.03 seconds to win gold for his country and eclipse Michael Johnson’s 17-year-old world record.
Van Niekerk, who ran in lane eight which is considered the longest part of the track, broke Johnson’s time of 43.18 seconds which has stood since 1999.
Kirani James of Grenada took the silver while bronze went to LaShawn Merritt of the United States.
The 24-year-old former 200m runner had won gold at the world championships in Beijing last year. He The is trained by a 74-year-old great grandmother, Anna “Tannie Ans” Botha.
cpcnews.org 