Wayde van Niekerk is adding the shorter sprints to his competition repertoire‚ but one of the country’s top middle-distance coaches is wondering what might happen if he were to move the other way. Ian Harries‚ who mentored Mbulaeni Mulaudzi to the Olympic 800m silver medal at Athens 2004‚ believes the 400m world-record holder would be capable of a world mark in the double-lap race. "I wish [Van Niekerk’s coach] Ansie Botha would … experiment with Wayde over 800‚" Vaal Triangle-based Harries said. With Van Niekerk’s 400m record at 43.03sec‚ Harries’s theory is that if he were to do the first lap in 48sec — faster than David Rudisha’s 49.28 on his world-record run — he would still have a five-second "protection time". "Look at his build‚ he is not as big as the Americans. I think you would see the first sub-1min 40sec 800m." When Harries‚ 73‚ started out as a coach 50 years ago‚ the world was still awaiting a sub-10sec 100m and the men’s marathon best was nearly 10minutes slower than ...
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