by Deji Ogeyingbo
Wayde Van Niekerk, London 2017, photo by Mike Deering / The Shoe Addicts
Watching Wayde Van Niekerk in 2016 and 2017, one would not be accused of using too much hyperbole to say that Wayde Van Niekerk was by himself in terms of fitness at the 400m in 2016 and 2017. Can he get back to that level? Deji Ogeyingbo thinks so.
Can Wayde Van Niekerk win another world title?
On the eve of the 2017 world championships in London, Usain Bolt had identified Van Niekerk as the man to replace him, predicting: “He will take over, without a doubt.” Bolt was having his swansong at the same championships and the athletics world needed an athlete to take over the mantle of carrying the sport on its shoulders while propelling it to the minds of the global audience.
The glory years of Niekerk’s career between 2015 and 2017 were mastered by his ruthless style of running, in which he takes the initiative and strides to the front of the pack from the outset. Such was his dominance that on his way to winning his first Olympic title in Rio in 2016, he stormed to a new World Record of 43.08 from the outside lane.
In the years in which Bolt held sway in the sports and transcended its global appeal, it was at the Rio Olympics in which he shared the stage with Van Niekerk. Although the big Jamaican was the star attraction at the Games, the South African showed beyond doubt he was capable of churning out pure and unadulterated running that could make the world tremble.
A year later, the South African was one of the stars of the London 2017 world championships – winning the 400m in 43.98sec, nearly half a second clear of the silver medalist, Steve Gardiner, despite wet weather and plummeting temperatures.
Two days later, he then came within 0.02sec of becoming the first man since Michael Johnson in 1995 to win the 200m and 400m titles at the same world championship, only to be denied by the surprise gold medalist Ramil Guliyev from Turkey. The stars were beginning to align.
Wayde Van Niekerk, London 2017, photo by Mike Deering / The Shoe Addicts
At that moment, the transition was just a matter of time. Bolt about to retire, and a young sprinter about to slide into his shoes seamlessly. A shoe rather big, but the signs were good, or so we thought.
A few weeks after the World Championships, Van Niekerk was forced to pull out of the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia after seriously injuring his knee during a celebrity touch rugby match. He was to face six months of rehabilitation in the US, Qatar, and South Africa after sustaining medial and lateral tears of the meniscus and tearing his anterior cruciate ligament playing rugby in Cape Town.
It felt strange to fans of athletics because he was meant to be having a rest while he builds up for the next season. Life happens. Things you love to do can cause harm sometimes. Van Niekerk loved to play touch rugby, and it almost ended his career.
The road to recovery for many athletes can be gruesome. The treatment, medication, and rehabilitation take their toll. Oftentimes, it’s the facile things like watching your teammates compete and not being able to that works on your mind. Can I still come back to my best? If I do, can I take on these young and emerging stars? It’s a whole lot, and that’s why some elite sports stars employ different techniques like yoga, meditating, and therapy.
Wayde Van Niekerk, London 2017, photo by Mike Deering / The Shoe Addicts
So much could be attributed to how Van Niekerk once set the standard for mental toughness when, against all odds, he stormed to his first World title in Beijing in 2015. The likes of Kirani James and LaShawn Merritt were the dominant forces over the one-lap. It was a brave new world that he helped create; his attitude and mentality showed most of his competitors how far the body could be pushed.
The South African’s versatility was something that made his opponents drool. In the space of three weeks in 2017, he ran 19.84 over the 200m, 9.94 over the 100m, and 30.81 over the 300m. He was flying at that point and seemingly unstoppable.
Van Niekerk’s fierce demeanor on the belies the quiet, reserved manner of his simplicity. Despite all of the fame that came with his achievements between 2015 and 2017, he still remained in Bloemfontein training with Ans Botha, the 74-year-Old coach who molded him into a world-class sprinter.
The World Record holder continued biding his time patiently with this recovery as if it were an extended changeover. Yet he will be eager to put aside his towel, trot out to the track, and dig his feet into the blocks. There is nothing to replace the itch of competition or to displace the mastery of his life-forged talent.
So, the comeback was on. Van Niekerk tried to make it time for the World Championship in Doha in 2019, but he encountered a bit of setback. A couple of competitions in early 2020, but Covid struck and put spanner in the works of chances of making the qualifying time for the Tokyo games. As faith would have it, the games were postponed, and he had a chance for redemption.
When the games started in the summer of 2021, he was fit to take on his opponents. But he crashed out of the men’s 400m in the semi-finals, a disappointing turn for the 29-year-old.
Van Niekerk partly attributes the failure in Tokyo to a lack of concentration: “I had an issue with my back, and I know now my mind was not centered, and that can set you back,”
“Looking back at 2021, in so many ways it’s really been crazy and generally tough. Not only did the COVID-19 pandemic create inconsistencies with socializing and interaction, it also affected our fitness,” he said.
A couple of days back, Van Niekerk pulled out of the South African Athletics Championships after he suffered another injury. But at this point, patience is key. The road to recovery will be filled with lots of setbacks, and this latest one might just prove vital with the world champs less than 90 days away.
If fortune shines, Van Niekerk will have a new lease on getting his back on ruthless running. He will have a license to slide into the blue or red tartan track of an arena, get out fast from the blocks, and defend the final stages of his athletics legacy.
It has never been easy to run like Van Niekerk, and it’s no given he will win another World title, but athletics fans around the world hope he will return to his best. They want to see him compete with the aura of yesterday.
If he regains his great form, he will win more titles surely. Enjoy whatever he can give us. There will never be another Wayde Van Niekerk.
