On Tuesday 8th August Wayde van Niekerk underlined his iconic status with a successful defence of his world 400 m title, claiming gold in 43.98 s. Despite an empty lane outside him, because of the absence of Botswana`s Isaac Makwala, van Niekerk started strongly from lane six and lead from start to finish. Despite the race for gold being over at 300 m, the battle for the silver medal was very much on. It appeared that Botswana would win a medal as 20-year-old Baboloki Thebe ran the quickest bend of all (10.82 s) from the outside lane. However, Thebe faded with 40 m to go and 21-year-old Bahamian Steven Gardiner produced another strong performance to secure the silver in 44.41 s. Interestingly, if Gardiner had replicated his semi-final performance two days earlier, whereby he lowered his own national record to 43.89 s, van Niekerk may have faced a greater challenge. Thebe was also denied the bronze medal as the fast-finishing Abdalelah Haroun of Qatar crossed the line in a season`s best time of 44.48 s. Despite being last at 340 m, Haroun carved through the field over the final 60 m to become the first Asian 400 m medallist at a World Championships.
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