Exceptionally fast South African may be the man to challenge slowing Usain Bolt

It’s hard enough trying to beat Usain Bolt over a race that lasts just 100 metres. It’s harder still when you are 34 years old and realise at least half the Olympic Stadium is rooting against you.

That may not be a precise summary of the latest showdown to decide the fastest man on earth, although judging by how comfortably Justin Gatlin was beaten, there is simply no denying Bolt’s enduring supremacy – or is there?

Enter Wayde van Niekerk – 20 minutes earlier, to be exact – because the lasting memory from Sunday night’s finals inside the Olympic Stadium may well be van Niekerk’s world record of 43.03 seconds for 400m, the young South African winning from lane eight, coming frighteningly close to 42-second territory in the process.

The previous record of 43.18 had stood to Michael Johnson since 1999 (or 6,198 days, to be exact), and everything about van Niekerk’s performance suggested there was more to come. Should he meet Bolt any time soon, over the in-between distance of 300m, might that supremacy finally be broken?

What is certain is that Bolt’s 9.81 seconds on Sunday night – although the slowest of his now three successive Olympic 100m titles – was more than enough to handle Gatlin.

Showing his age

And more than last summer’s World Championship final in Beijing, where he got to within .01 of Bolt, the 34-year-old American is showing his age, despite his perfectly executed start, fading off in the last 20m to finish second in 9.89 (neatly completing his set of Olympic medals, having won bronze in London four years ago, and gold back in 2004, before serving a second ban for doping.

That second doping ban, however, came back to haunt him somewhat on Sunday, as at least half the Olympic Stadium, which was at near full capacity, began to boo Gatlin as he entered the track. It was proper booing too, which the Brazilian audiences are prone to do anyway for any athlete other than their own, although there was no hiding their source of distaste.

More gracious

Gatlin didn’t hide from it afterwards, either. Acting a little more gracious and a lot more reserved than recent years, he admitted the booing had got to him, even as he tried to drown it out in his head.

“Well, you know, you do hear everything,” said Gatlin. “For me, you have to tune that kind of stuff out. When people come out here they get enthralled, they get excited, and there are a lot of Usain Bolt fans, a lot of Jamaican fans, but they don’t know me, they don’t know Justin.

“I work very hard, and have the respect of my own competitors. We work very hard for what we do, and to be able to have the respect of the competitors, that I line up with, that’s all I care about. I leave all the other stuff out.”

Bolt wasn’t impressed by the level of distaste directed towards Gatlin either and, despite their rivalry being billed as hero versus villain, for better or for worse, there was the sense this was Gatlin’s final fall from grace.

“It was surprising,” admitted Bolt, “And I didn’t expect that. I’ve never heard or seen that happen before. I guess some people are more vocal than others, but I wasn’t focused on that. I was here to do my job.”

Indeed Bolt actually had some kind words for Gatlin (“he’s a great competitor, without a doubt. He shows, pushes you to run fast, and be the best at all times”) and although there’s another reprise of their rivalry over the 200m (which gets underway today, 3.50pm Irish time), it’s even harder to see how Bolt can be challenged over his preferred distance, as he looks to complete a historic the hat-trick of Olympic sprint trebles he’d so boldly set out to do.

Which brings us back to van Niekerk. At 24 he certainly hasn’t come from nowhere, running 43.48, the then fourth-fastest in history, to win the World Championship gold in Beijing last summer.

Exceptionally fast

Still, no one expected him to run 43.03 in Rio – at least not out in lane eight. It was an exceptionally fast race (seven men running under 44.50 unprecedented in any 400m race), and if van Niekerk had somehow managed to keep running at that pace, he’d have run a mile in 3:07, a 10km in 22:24, or a marathon in 1:42:42.

Okay, dream on. Although he’s already the first man in history to go sub-10 for 100, sub-20 for 200m, and sub-44 for 400m – again with room to improve.

Indeed van Niekerk is currently coached by 75-year-old great-grandmother Anna ‘Tannie Ans’ Botha, at The University of the Free State in Bloemfontein (and that’s not a misprint).

Tannie Ans, a former sprinter and long jumper in her heyday, admits she is still learning, including from the likes of Bolt’s coach Glenn Mills, who she met at the World Championships last summer.

After that van Niekerk briefly trained in Jamaica, earlier this year, and one of the questions put to Bolt after his victory on Sunday was whether or not he’d like to race van Niekerk over that 300m distance.

“That would be a good one, that would be a good race,” said Bolt. “I would really like to compete against him over 300m that would be good. Hopefully next season, if he is in good shape . . .”

Bolt’s best is 30.97 seconds, while van Niekerk passed the 300m on Sunday night in about 30.8, with another 100m to run. Maybe someone could put some bleachers out in the sun down on Copacabana before the week is over?