Staff Reporter.
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World record holder Wayde van Niekerk will defend his Olympic title in Tokyo this year after achieving the 400m qualifying standard at a meeting in Madrid on Saturday, but Caster Semenya missed out in her latest attempt to book her place in the 5 000m event.
The 28-year-old Van Niekerk finished second in a time of 44.56 seconds, well inside the required standard of 44.90.
The race was won by Colombia’s Anthony Jose Zambrano, the 2019 World Championships silver medallist, who clocked 44.51.
It was Van Niekerk’s first 400m race of the season after linking up with new coach Lance Brauman at his base in the United States.
Despite being sidelined for a couple of years after picking up a knee injury in 2017, Van Niekerk has maintained confidence that he will be ready to target his second one-lap title at the Tokyo Games starting next month.
Caster Semenya, meanwhile, finished fourth in a 5 000m race in Regensburg on Saturday in 15:57.12 seconds, more than 47 seconds outside the 15:10.00 required to compete in Tokyo.
She has previously clocked times of 15:52.28 at altitude in Pretoria and 15:32.15 in Durban a few weeks ago.
The two-time Olympic 800m champion, who is suspended from her specialist two-lap event due to international gender rules, must achieve the qualifying criteria before 29 June if she hopes to compete in the 5 000m race in Tokyo.
South Africa’s 200m record-holder, Clarence Munyai, competed in the 100m semi-final and ran 10.60 to qualify for the final, but he did not participate in that race.
The two other SA athletes in Madrid were Taylon Bieldt, who finished fourth in the women’s 400m hurdles by stopping the clock in 56.98, while Antonio Alkana placed seventh in the men’s 110m hurdles semi-final with a time of 14.38.
The International Olympic Committee has set a 29 June deadline for athletes wanting to compete in Japan to secure qualification.