The 400m world record holder Wayde van Niekerk and team secured silver medal at the World Athletics Bahamas 2024 relays on Sunday morning. Becoming his first silverware in seven years after a career threatening injury alongside young talented athletes Zakithi Nene, Gardeo Isaacs and Lythe Pillay. The event took place in Nassau, Bahamas on the 4th-5th May at Thomas A Robinson National Stadium.
Van Niekerk and Co-stars competed in a 4*400m men’s relay where a Cape Town born Gardeo Isaacs started the first leg of the relay, using his strong point, skills and weaknesses of his opponent to be in second place before he handed Zathiki the baton who gave everything left in him to come third place passing the baton to Nortjie who replaced Wayde after he ran the third leg but pulled out the race due to reported niggle.
Antonie did a brilliant Job keeping the team on track ensuring they still stand a chance at silverware, it was the brilliance of Lythe Pillay on the final lap where he completed the teams plan to book a ticket to the 2024 Olympics games coming second place to the gold medalist winners Botswana who were outstanding on the day, South Africa finished second at 3min75sec while first place Botswana clocked at 2min59.11sec.
Ecstatic Wayde said the win was a team effort and it took off pressure from the young guys, post interviews Niekerk explained that he enjoys competing alongside the incredible skillful athletes such as Nene, Isaacs and Pillay. According to van Niekerk the moral of the team was high coming into the relay “We really had confidence we can do it, today was just really about being present and executing the job”.
Last man standing, the perfect pillar of the team Pillay delivered outstanding performance in the final leg blistering through opponents to earn SA a second place finish and qualification to Paris Olympics, Lythe explained that all he did was to stick to the teams plans and “stick to my strength, not to go out too quick and not to go out too slow”. Pillay further added he had achieved his childhood dream competing against and alongside the world 400m record holder Wayde van Niekerk “I got to push him in a race and now I’m competing with him”.
Zakithi and company will represent South Africa competing in the coming Olympic games Paris 2024 that’s taking place on the 26th of July 2024 with SA 4*400m men’s relay team consisting of Wayde, Nene, Isaacs and Pillay hoping to clinch first place and bring home gold medals.
