Defending champion WaydeDreamer looked in good shape on Sunday to almost ‘jog’ into the semi-finals of the 400m at the Tokyo Olympics. By ashfakmohamed IOLsport Tokyo2020 Olympics TeamSA
The South African went through his usual pre-race routine, raising his arms into the air and wriggling his fingers, before getting down into the blocks.
Australia’s Steven Solomon and Anthony Zambrano of Colombia then actually went past Van Niekerk with about 50 metres to go, but the South African quickly put in a little spurt to edge ahead of Scotch before looking around to the rest of the competitors to make sure of the third and last automatic qualification spot in a time of 45.25 seconds.
The other two South Africans in the 400m, Zakithi Nene and Thapelo Phora, missed out on qualification for the semi-finals. Nene made a strong start to his heat from lane eight, but faded in the final 20m to finish fifth in a time of 45.74. American Randolph Ross – who has the fastest time in the world this year of 43.85 – pipped Nene to fourth spot, but surprisingly missed out on qualification as one of the ‘fastest losers’ due to a sluggish time of 45.67.
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