Wayde van Niekerk's leap into track superstardom put on hold in 200 final

Discussion in 'Other Sports' started by truebluefan, Aug 11, 2017.

  1. truebluefan

    truebluefan Administrator Staff Member Administrator

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    Wayde van Niekerk was facing much more than seven other sprinters in the 200-meter world championship final Thursday. He was competing against the legacies of two of track and field's greatest champions: Usain Bolt and Michael Johnson.

    The burden proved too great, even for an athlete of Van Niekerk's immense talents. Two days after winning the 400, the South African was upset in the 200 by Ramil Guliyev of Turkey, who won in 20.09 seconds. Van Niekerk took silver Thursday in a 20.11 photo finish with Jereem Richards of Trinidad and Tobago.

    Bolt, who had won every championship in the event since 2008 and still owns the world record of 19.19, elected to skip the 200 in this final meet of his career. Johnson, who held the world record for 12 years before Bolt, is the last person to capture the 200-400 double that Van Niekerk attempted here in London.

    Read more http://www.espn.com/athletics/story...ayde-van-niekerk-just-misses-200-title-london
     

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