ATHLETICS
What’s possible for Bolt is possible for me, says Wayde van Niekerk
The award-winning athlete looks to self-belief to break Michael Johnson’s 400m world record
London — Training with Jamaican athletics legend Usain Bolt gave Wayde van Niekerk the self-belief he could break Michael Johnson’s 400m world record, he told The Times on Tuesday. The 24-year-old South African duly delivered in perhaps the performance of 2016’s athletics at the Olympics in Rio, posting a time of 43.03 in the final to smash Johnson’s 17-year-old mark of 43.18. Van Niekerk conceded with Bolt due to bow out after the World Athletics Championships in London in August he is not the man to replace him as the poster boy or showman of the sport. "A lot of people say: ‘Wayde, you need to be more of an entertainer’," said the athlete coached by 74-year-old grandmother Anna Botha. "I am not that type, but I see qualities I share with Usain Bolt, and that brings a form of comfort even if it won’t sell T-shirts." However, he acknowledges the role the 30-year-old sprinter played in instilling the belief in him he could threaten Johnson’s world record and once he had done that, t...
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