Wayde van Niekerk awaits second result after testing positive for Covid-19

Wayde van Niekerk’s planned comeback to international racing in Italy on Saturday night has been put on hold after he tested positive for Covid-19.

The rest of the SA contingent were negative, a member of the Van Niekerk camp told TimesLIVE.

That includes the Olympic 400m champion’s coach, 'Tannie Ans' Botha, teammates Ruswahl Samaai and Antonio Alkana, his agent and physio, who had worked on Van Niekerk daily.

Van Niekerk, who was feeling healthy and no ill effects, was awaiting the result of a second test to confirm if he is indeed positive.

There were hopes that if the result of the second test is negative, he would still be able to compete in Trieste, about 100km south of his training base in Gemona.

But with the morning nearly gone, it appeared increasingly unlikely he would get to line up if he were to test negative.

Gemona escaped the worst of the Italian pandemic earlier this year with 11 reported cases.

The SA contingent had been tested four times since departing for Italy two weeks ago, including just before leaving the country and just after they had arrived in Gemona.

All the previous tests were negative.

TimesLIVE