Wayde's body failed him, but he will be back for Paris

WHEN Wayde van Niekerk faded away over the last 100 metres at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium yesterday, it reminded me of Chad le Clos' 200m butterfly final last week.

South Africa's most decorated Olympian led his race against Hungarian favourite Kristof Milak at the 150m mark, but the 21-year-old roared back to take gold in a new Olympic record of 1:51.25, with Le Clos unable to sustain his earlier pace to end fifth.

“I wasn't off. It's just, the body didn't work. The body didn't come back, unfortunately. It is what it is,” the SA swimming legend said afterwards.

Van Niekerk's 400m semi-final yesterday was quite similar. He seemed to be stuck in the blocks initially, and was nearly two-tenths of a second behind Steven Gardiner of the Bahamas' reaction time, but then put his foot down and stormed into the lead after 200 metres.

Once he approached the final bend, though, the 29-year-old had a grimace on his face just as Gardiner, American Michael Norman and Isaac Makwala of Botswana glided past him. Van Niekerk realised that something was wrong, and slowed down considerably before managing to finish the race in a time of 45.14 seconds. Just like Le Clos, it

looked like his body “didn't work”.

“Obviously, very disappointed with the run. Expected way more from myself, but it obviously didn't work out the way I would like it to work out. But it is what it is, and we move forward,” the world record-holder said afterwards.

But could Van Niekerk really have “expected way more” from himself?

If you look at his preparations for the Tokyo Olympics, then probably not.

Let's not even go back to THAT October 2017 day at Newlands rugby stadium, where he sustained the serious knee ligament injury that turned his world upside down.

It took him a bit longer than may have been anticipated to get over the knee injury, but then the Covid-19 pandemic descended.

He had one 400m race in Switzerland,

which he duly won in 45.58, in September last year, and ran a few low-key local events towards the end of the year. Then he made the big call of changing his coach and joined ties with American Lance Brauman.

But even when he arrived in the United States, he couldn't compete as often as he wanted. By that time, he had not yet qualified for the Olympics in the 400m, with Brauman advising him to only run 200m races. At one of those, the adidas Boston Games, Van Niekerk pulled up close to the finish line, and went to sit down, later pointing to his hip while talking with his coach.

He quickly said that it wasn't a serious issue, and a hip scan had shown “minimal damage”. However, after a couple of races prior, he withdrew from his last pre-Olympics race in Hungary in July due to “discomfort” in his lower back.

So, such a disrupted build-up contributed significantly to what happened in the semi-final yesterday and having had to exert himself in the closing stages of his heat on Sunday to ensure his qualification, proved to be a bridge too far for Van Niekerk.

But knowing his work ethic and determination to succeed, Van Niekerk will make sure that he is at full strength for the 2024 Paris Games. He is just too talented to exit the Olympic stage in such a disappointing manner …