Wayde van Niekerk’s 400m Olympic title defence is over after the South African crashed out in the semi-finals at Tokyo 2020.
The result is a disappointing end to a bitter five-year journey for the 29-year-old. After his immense gold-medal race at Rio 2016, with the world seemingly at his feet, he would infamously injure his knee in a celebrity touch rugby game only a few months later. A devastating string of setbacks has kept him out of the sport almost entirely until now – only managing to achieve an Olympic qualifying time in the final lead-up.
His time of 45.14 was well short of his world record of 43.03 from the previous Games.
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