Wayde van Niekerk of Bloemfontein’s purple patch has continued with the sprinter notching up another win.

The world 400m sprint champion stole the show in Boston, Massachusetts, in the USA by winning the Adidas Boost Boston Games on Friday evening.

The 23-year-old won the 400m sprint at the event in “Beantown” in a time of 44.28 seconds, just 0.17 seconds slower than his season’s best which he set in Bloemfontein during the South African Open Championship in May.

Van Niekerk, who has recently been training in Jamaica with Usain Bolt, was an impressive winner over one lap of the track at the Dilboy Stadium, and he ran a reasonably comfortable win over Machel Cedenio of Trinidad and Tobago in 44.87 with USA’s David Verburg third in 44.98.

Van Niekerk will be in action again this week where he will be competing in the CAA Senior African Championship in Durban.

While the sprinter has indicated that he will be focusing exclusively on the 400m for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, he will be competing in the 200m sprint in Durban.
The reasoning behind this is that Van Niekerk has run a few big 400m sprints this season and he doesn’t want to over-do the distance heading into Rio de Janeiro.

Van Niekerk hasn’t had a good 200m race this season either and will be using the opportunity to test his mettle. However, even if he does clock the Olympic qualifying time in Durban, he will not compete in the 200m at the global showpiece in August.

There may be the possibility that Van Niekerk, along with Anaso Jobodwana, Akani Simbine and Henrico Bruintjies, may look to qualify for Rio in the men’s 4 x 100m sprint. Van Niekerk did indicate that he would welcome representing South Africa in the event rather than competing in a possibly weak 4 x 400m relay team.

“If the team is good and ready and we’re all running quite competitive times, then I’m more than willing to represent the country with them. Look at the 4 x 100m at the moment. There are top class guys and I doubt anyone would say no to doing a relay with them because you know and can see that they are great performers.
“Each and every one of them can run a sub ten.”

Van Niekerk and the women’s 800m runner, Caster Semenya, who is based in Potchefstroom, are considered to be firm favourites to win gold for South Africa in Rio, in just 44 days from now.

Semenya has also qualified to complete in the women’s 400m sprint in Brazil, and whether or not she competes in this unfamiliar event, remains to be seen.

The Senior African Championship in Durban runs from 22 to 26 June, while the Olympics Games in Rio de Janeiro begins on 5 August 2016. – MORGAN PIEK