African Sports Monthly International Women's Day Special Edition | Page 59

On the long and middle distance Genzebe Dibaba was her dominant self in the 1500 meters but her
fellow countrywoman Almaz Ayana would deny her the 5000 meters race where she faltered and came
in third.

New Kid on the Block: Wayde Van Niekerk destroying a world class field
On the men’s side it was total dominance by the South Africans in the sprints starting with Akani
Simbine who won the 100 meters at the World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea with a time of
9.97 seconds and his dominant performance will be backed up by countrymen Anaso Jobodwana who
won South Africa’s first ever world Championships medal in the 200 as he finished next to Usain Bolt to
take the silver medal. But most significant was South African, Wayde Van Niekerk who had been going
back and forth with Botswana’s Isaac Makawala in breaking the African 400 meters record throughout
the season. On the day of the 400 meters finals in Beijing it no longer became a contest as he finally put
a punctuation to that back and forth when
he not only took the Gold Medal but
convincingly beat the world’s best quartermilers in Lashawn Merritt of the USA and
Kirani James of Grenada, running the fourth
fastest time in history for the distance of
43.29 a new African and National record for
South Africa. Van Niekerk rewrote the
definition of “True Grit” is as he laid
everything on the line to dominate a global
field fainting after his performance and had
to be rushed to the hospital.
David Rudisha Celebrates after his 800 meters victory
in Beijing