NATIONAL NEWS - South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk has produced a stunning world record to clinch gold for South Africa at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Running in lane eight, the 24-year-old world champion got off to a flier and was streaking clear on the back straight but he upped his pace even further in the second half of the race to better American Michael Johnson’s 1999 mark of 43.18 seconds.
Van Niekerk looked as stunned as the crowd as he produced the greatest run of all time in the 400m to win gold in Rio.
Out in lane eight he led from start to finish blowing away his main competitors Kirani James and Lashawn Merritt who were hapless bystanders in his wake.
He first found his family in the crowd and embraces before doing a slow circuit of the adoring crowd draped in the South African flag.
The 100m final after that was almost an afterthought as Usain Bolt won his third consecutive title in 9.81 seconds and an excellent run from Akani Simbine who finished fifth.
