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“The record was just a bonus and a blessing. I actually enjoy the 300m a lot,” he told City Press this week a few days after he clocked a new continental record and South African time of 31.63 at last weekend’s International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Diamond League meeting.
The previous record of 31.74 in the 300m was set 29 years ago by the now late Ivorian sprinter Gabriel Tiacoh – while Morné Nagel set the 32.15 South African record in December 2006.
The Birmingham event was Van Niekerk’s first international meeting and he had recently completed his midyear exams.
“I’m actually happy that I passed all my subjects. Now I can compete with the weight [of exams] off my shoulders,” said the University of the Free State student, who is studying towards a BA in marketing.
Van Niekerk now holds two national records, having also smashed the 15-year-old SA 400m record exactly a year ago.
The lanky sprinter has etched his name in the country’s athletics annals alongside Anaso Jobodwana, Stephen Mokoka, LJ van Zyl, Willem Coertzen, Annemie Smith and Lebogang Shange (see graphic).
Jobodwana lowered the SA 200m time to 20.04 – only two weeks after breaking Nagel’s 13-year record of 20.11 last month.
His feat came a few days after decathlete Coertzen made an amazing comeback from injury at the IAAF World Combined Events Challenge in Austria.
Coertzen bettered his own national record and claimed 8 398 points after he notched up personal bests in the 1 500m (4:22.22), shot put (14.14m) and discus throw (44.84m).
A decathlon consists of 10 track and field events and performance is judged on a points system in each event, not by the individual positions achieved.
Last month, Mokoka clocked his second South African record when his winning time of 27:38 at the Great Manchester Run took 22 seconds off the 35-year-old 10km record, which had been held by Matthews Motshwarateu.
Mokoka’s feat followed just a few hours after hurdler Van Zyl equalled the 200m hurdles world record of 22.10 at the same event.
Mokoka began his season with a new national record of 13:11.44 at the SA Senior Track and Field Championships in Stellenbosch, Western Cape, in the 5 000m final in April, smashing Shadrack Hoff’s 20-year-old national record of 13:14.16.
Race walker Shange also broke the SA 20km walk record twice in eight days – his time of 1:21:50 in Switzerland in March was 32 seconds faster than the previous national mark of 1:22:21 set by his coach, Chris Britz, in Germany in 1996.
Shange also holds the 3 000m SA walk record after his time of 11:20.39 early in March bettered the 11:27.20 that had been set by Britz in 1989.
Hammer thrower Smith broke her own national record at a collegiate meeting in the US with a 60.99m heave that improved her previous mark of 60.38m, which she set in March last year.
