Wayde van Niekerk: who would tell you to play rugby?

Wayde van Niekerk (30) dice:.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
21 July 2022 Thursday 21:55
12 Reads
Wayde van Niekerk: who would tell you to play rugby?

Wayde van Niekerk (30) dice:

I can't keep blaming myself for that. I have to look forward.

And that does: look forward.

Or try.

Because this morning (4:35 a.m., Spanish time) he will be in the 400m final, just like in his old days.

But it's not the same.

(...)

It was 2015 and Usain Bolt was still reigning and a skinny South African with a magnificent ankle burst into the international showcase.

Wayde van Niekerk tenía flow.

He moved effortlessly, managed the rhythms, manipulated his rivals at the time, people as talented as LaShawn Merritt or Kirani James (still here).

Light and elastic, nothing to do with those giants, van Niekerk overwhelmed them, like David against Goliath.

And so it exploded: world gold in Beijing 2015, Olympic gold in Rio 2016 (with world record included: the portentous 43s03 that he signed running alone, down the outside street), world gold in London 2017 (and silver in 200). .

That was a dream.

Van Niekerk was able to lose less than ten seconds in the 100 (9s94), twenty seconds in the 200 (19s84) and 44 seconds in the 400 (43s03).

We all wrote:

"Bolt has an heir."

The story was nice.

Van Niekerk came and went with his coach, Ans Botha, an old woman with white hair and an affable appearance who looked like his grandmother: today she is 79 years old.

The world was his.

And then rugby...

A charity match in October 2017, a sharp turn.

Crrrrraaaaack.

Van Niekerk hears the crack and feels the pain in his knee...

ACL, is written in English: Anterior Cruciate Ligament. Anterior cruciate ligament.

The disaster.

Who would order him to play that charity match?

Everyone loses.

World Athletics, the 400m, the mythomaniacs and, of course, Van Niekerk. After the injury comes the darkness. Fixing the knee of a quattrocentista takes time. Van Niekerk disappears from the scene. He is not in 2019 and finds relief in 2020: the pandemic gives him oxygen. From South Africa, exciting news arrives. Wayde van Niekerk runs a 400 in 47s.

–The registration is only correct, but it has felt good –experts say.

Not enough: look for alternatives. Van Niekerk breaks up with his mistress Ans Botha and emigrates to Florida, where he is taken in by the troupe of Noah Lyles and Shaunae Miller-Uibo.

At Tokyo 2020 (in 2021), he crashes.

It lacks freshness, ankle and elasticity. Does not walk. He goes out in the semifinals, at 45s14.

It is done?

Is Van Niekerk finished?

Not for now.

He gives himself one last hug and appears these days, in Eugene, and here he fights: he continues without being elastic or imperial, but he reaches the final of the 400 (44.75 in his semifinal), where Michael Hudson-Smith, the eternal Kirani, awaits him James and the local Michael Norman, an American icon who usually messes up on big dates.

I see an open ending. Steven Gardiner or Anthony Zambrano are not there and Van Niekerk is not the one from 2016 or 2017, but little by little he is coming back. After all that this man has been through and suffered, how I wish he would win! Óscar Husillos tells me, the best current Spanish Quattrocento.