Wayde van Niekerk cruises into 400m semifinals at world championships

Wayde van Niekerk easily won his 400m heat at the world championships in Budapest on Sunday morning, pushing hard at the end to overhaul Briton Matthew Hudson-Smith, the bronze medallist from 2022.

He finished first in 44.57sec, comfortably inside his 44.08 season’s best and almost a light year off his 43.03 world record.

The former world champion, looking to ascend the podium for the first time since injuring his right knee in 2017, punched out the second-fastest time of the morning heats.

The quickest was Havard Ingvaldsen of Norway, who won his race in a 44.39 national record, while 2019 world champion Steve Gardiner of the Bahamas, the favourite coming into the competition, went 44.65 to win his heat, though he was throwing up afterwards.

Van Niekerk’s compatriot Zakithi Nene also advanced out of the heats. Nene went out hard in the first race of the morning but was edged into fourth as he crossed the line in 44.88, fast enough to qualify him as one of the six fastest losers.

Lythe Pillay, the world under-20 champion, ended fourth in his heat, but his 45.58 left him six spots and 0.34 off the slowest qualifier.   

The semifinals are set for Tuesday evening.

Hurdler Zeney van der Walt was the only one of the three SA women to advance to the women’s 400 semifinals, finishing third in her heat in 51.76.

But she will have a choice to make with the 400m hurdles heats and 400 semifinals about two-and-a-half hours apart on Monday evening.

SA champion Miranda Coetzee ended seventh in her 400m heat in 52.30, well off the 50.90 personal best she ran in June, while World Student Games champion Marlie Viljoen ended last in hers in 53.73, nearly two seconds off her 51.81 best from April.

In other action, Antonio Alkana hit eight hurdles as he finished last in his 110m heat in 14.25.

And Yolandi Stander, runner-up at the recent Universiade, threw a best of 53.39m in the women’s discus, well short of her 58.80 best.