One more medal shot for Wayde van Niekerk after dramatic relay heat

Wayde van Niekerk may get the opportunity to win another Olympic medal on Saturday after the men’s 4x400m team advanced out of the heats in dramatic fashion on Friday.

Antonio Nortje got the baton in fourth place at the start of the third leg, but he fell flat on his face and though he got up and continued running, but the team finished last in 3 min 03.19 sec.

But they appealed to win their spot in what will be a nine-lane final on Saturday night.

“We were obstructed ... actually twice — just before the handover and just after the handover,” said athletics team manager Jean Verster.

“[A runner] cut in front of Nortje, the second one, and feet clashed and he went down hard and so we appealed that and they reinstated us.”

The 4x400m team also won a spot in the London 2012 final through appeal.

“It was a very aggressive handover,” Lythe Pillay said afterwards. “As long as he knows that we love and we support him — we run together, we die together.

“When we lose, one thing that remains is that we still stay consistent, we still stay together.”

If Van Niekerk does come into the team for the final, he’ll likely take the place of Nortje.

They were the only South Africans to advance to finals on Friday morning.

Edmund du Plessis just didn’t quite have the kick at the end to get through his 800m semifinal, crossing the line in 1 min 45.34 sec, just 18-hundredths behind the second runner who took the last automatic qualifying spot.

“I’m a bit disappointed, but I’m also happy,” he said.

“Because I saw now with the race of these guys ... and being able to race with them and come to a dip to the line and missing out in the final with 0.2 of a second, I mean, it’s also a nice feeling.”

The fourth-year medical student at Tuks plans to continue balancing his athletics and university work. “It’s difficult,” Du Plessis admitted.

“It’s a lot of late night studies and early mornings and sometimes I’m frustrated ... You can't study as much as you want to study and you can't train as much as you want to train. And I want to do [well] in the studies and I also want to do [well] in athletics.”

In the kayaking, Hamish Lovemore and Andy Birkett ended sixth in their K2 500m semifinal, but their 1:29.70 effort was a mere 19-hundredths of a second off a spot in the A final.

In the B final they finished fourth in 1:31.79 for an overall ranking of 12th.

For marathon specialists who have tried to become sprinters in the past six months, Lovemore and Birkett have done exceptionally well.

What might they have achieved had this been a long-term focus?

In the women’s 100m hurdles semifinals Marioné Fourie was off-form, finishing in a disappointing 13.03 sec to end sixth in her heat.