RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Bursting out of the blocks in lane eight, Wayde van Niekerk didn't see another runner during the entire Olympic 400-meter final.
He didn't need to. It was just him against the clock.
The South African sprinter broke Michael Johnson's 17-year-old world record on Sunday night in Rio de Janeiro, leaving two of the greatest one-lap runners of this era in his dust. Van Niekerk finished in 43.03 seconds — 0.15 seconds faster than Johnson ran in 1999. To think, Johnson's mark was considered one of the almost untouchable records in track.
The 24-year-old Van Niekerk leaned at the finish line, which he really didn't need to do as Kirani James of Grenada and LaShawn Merritt of the Unites States weren't even in the picture.