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Van Niekerk smashes SA 200m record─── 08:46 Wed, 15 Jul 2015
Bloemfontein’s Wayde van Niekerk has become the first South African sprinter to break the sub 20-second barrier in the 200 metre sprint in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Van Niekerk clocked 19.94 seconds on the eve of his 23rd birthday, breaking the national record of 20.04 seconds set by Anaso Jobodwana in Eugene, Oregon, on 30 May.
The 400m specialists’ previous personal best in the 200m event was recorded in May when he clocked 20.59 seconds in Cape Town.
Van Niekerk is experiencing a super hot streak at the moment having beaten the 400m Olympic champion, Kirani James, when he set the nationals and African 400m record at 43.96 seconds during the Paris Diamond League.
However, the African record lasted less than 24 hours with Botswana'a Isaac Makwala reclaiming the next morning in Switzerland.
The University of the Free State student is the first South African to hold that national records in the 200, 300 and 400 metre records, with the benchmarks all set within the space of five-weeks.
Morgan Piek / OFM News
