the past 10 years - Kirani James of Granada, LaShawn Merritt of USA
and the poster boy of South African athletics Wayde Van Niekerk.
Whoever was going to win had to make it special.
Running in the difficult lane eight, the 24 year old Van Niekerk
obliterated Michael Johnson's 17 year old record on his way to
securing the Gold Medal.
It took just 43.03 seconds for the flag bearer to win SA's first gold
in Rio and become only the second South African to break an athletics
world record at the Olympic Games.
Even the great man himself, Usain Bolt, was one of the first to
congratulate him soon after his race. Bolt himself also having broken
Johnson's 200m world record.
Speaking at a press conference later, Bolt said: "It was brilliant.
From lane eight, the way he runs, I knew he was going to be brilliant.
"When he was training in Jamaica my coach said he's probably the only
guy in the world right now who can break this 400m world record. He's
got speed and strength and he came out here and proved him right.
"I'm very happy for him. I'm really proud of him. He did extremely well."
Well done Van Niekerk.
