Van Niekerk and fellow sprinters could have won the 4x200m at the World Relays in Bahamas

24 April 2017 - 15:06 By David Isaacson
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Image: Via Instagram

Wayde van Niekerk and South Africa’s other top 200m sprinters would have had a great chance to win the 4x200m at the World Relays in Bahamas.

Canada took gold in this non-Olympic event in 1min 19.42sec ahead of the US and Jamaica.

Van Niekerk (19.90)‚ Akani Simbine (19.95)‚ Clarence Munyai (20.10) and US-based Ncincilili Titi (20.14) are the top four 200m sprinters so far this year‚ and their times add up to 1:20.09‚ which on its own would have been good enough for bronze on Sunday.

  • #FillupPotch great successWayde van Niekerk and his merry band of Olympic stars filled up Potchefstroom's Kenneth McArthur stadium at the weekend and wowed fans with world-class performances.

But then one should deduct around one second to cater for the running starts by the second‚ third and fourth athletes in the relay‚ and that could potentially have made SA substantially faster than the Canadians.

On the same basis‚ SA would probably not have won gold in the 4x100m‚ but they might have made the podium.

Athletics SA somehow scheduled the national championships for the same weekend as the World Relays.

- TMG Digital/TMG Sport

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