Did you know that Wayde van Niekerk was a classy fullback and wing at school? And that he is Cheslin Kolbe’s cousin? Well, the 400m world champion may even don his rugby boots in future again. So, watch out, Cheslin!
“At primary school, I was all over as the coach even put me at flyhalf, just to catch the ball and run away! As I got older, I played Sevens when I lived in Midrand for a year, and when I got back to Bloem, I played in the A teams at school at wing and fullback, at St Andrews and Grey College,” Van Niekerk said yesterday in Observatory.
“I enjoyed fullback a bit more as we had more freedom and so on. But later on, athletics decided to choose itself through the performances and when I qualified to represent my country, that’s when I knew that I had to focus over here and throw away the rugby dreams!
“But I would love to go and play Sevens one day, but if it’s not meant for me, I will reap where I am at this moment.”
This weekend, though, it’s the South African National Track and Field Championships at Coetzenburg in Stellenbosch, and Van Niekerk is “going to go out big” in the one-lap race, with the heats and semi-finals today and the final tomorrow (1.20pm).
The 23-year-old probably won’t go close to the 43.48 seconds he registered in winning the world title in Beijing last year, as he admits that he is “not Olympic-fit” at the moment, although his tremendous 100m time of 9.98 recently suggests otherwise.
Local sports fans will remember his epic performance at the Bird’s Nest stadium when he held off favourites Kirani James, LaShawn Merritt and Isaac Makwala to grab the gold medal, and he still has fond memories of the occasion.
“By the time we got to world championships, I felt that I’m really in here. With these guys, I didn’t really feel that this is LaShawn Merritt or this is Kirani James. I felt like I’m one of them, I didn’t feel out. I felt like I belong here,” Van Niekerk said.
“For me, it was really just about executing the best performance that I could at that moment. Beijing … I feel now and then that they are catching me, when I watch that video!”
Another remarkable achievement was attained last month when Van Niekerk became the first athlete in history to run under 10 seconds for the 100m, sub-20 for the 200m and sub-44 for the 400m when he produced a 9.98 effort at the Free State provincial championships, which is just outside 100m sensation Akani Simbine’s national mark of 9.96.
But Van Niekerk is a driven young man and isn’t basking in the glory of his monumental achievement a month later, despite having battled with a back problem in the 200m the day before. “I think it was during the (100m) heats, I just felt I’m flying! I just felt I will push it and see how my back feels, and I ran a 10.12, and I was like ‘wow, I already got the goal that I wanted to achieve’,” he said.
“When I got to the finals, I actually thought of Akani running the 9.96 (a few days before that), and I thought to myself ‘why not? If he can do it, I can try and do it as well.’ Luckily, things went my way.
“And the achievement as a whole, running all three of them, it is really something amazing, knowing that I can say I did that in history. Now I know that I can be up there with the world’s best and compete with them.
“I really don’t dwell on achievements too much – I try and move on as soon as possible. So once I achieve something, I move on to the next one and the next one. I’m still young and I have so much to achieve, so if I’m going to be dwelling on the achievements of yesterday, I’ll still be trapped in yesterday.”
Van Niekerk will go to Europe in June for the big Diamond League meetings, while he will also participate in the African Championships in Durban towards the end of that month.
But it’s all about the Olympics in August, and a gold medal may require a world record, with American great Michael Johnson’s mark standing at 43.18. Can Van Niekerk go quicker than that?
“I’ve said it so many times before – Michael Johnson’s record is Michael Johnson’s record. Me as Wayde, I need to do my own times and achieve my own goals, write my own journey and own story.
“If that means a new world record, I would be grateful for that, but I am focused on Wayde.”