Wayde van Niekerk in the 400m at the IAAF World Championships London 2017 (© Getty Images)
Steven Gardiner of The Bahamas produced the stand-out performance of tonight’s men’s 400m semifinals as he went through as top qualifier for Tuesday’s final by lowering his national record to 43.89 – a performance which left the 6ft 5in 21-year-old rolling incredulously on the track.
Event favourites Wayde van Niekerk, South Africa’s world and Olympic champion, and Isaac Makwala of Botswana, who ran the world record-holder so close in last month’s IAAF Diamond League meeting in Monaco, also qualified as they won the other two semi-finals – Van Niekerk clocking 44.22 and Makwala 44.30.
But the two African runners will approach the final without a shred of complacency following tonight’s performance by Gardiner – and the young Jamaican who followed him home in a personal best of 44.19, Nathon Allen.
Makwala’s 20-year-old compatriot Baboloki Thebe followed Van Niekerk home in 44.33 to secure the fifth fastest time of the night, with Jamaica’s Demish Gaye securing the sixth and final automatic qualifying place after coming home second behind Makwala in the third heat in 44.55.
Twenty-two-year-old Fred Kerley of the United States, who recorded 43.70 in May while running for Texas A&M University, looked as if he had had a long season as he faded in the opening semi won by Gardiner, finishing third in 44.51.
But that time proved enough to give the newly-established professional runner a place in the final, along with other non-automatic qualifier Abdalelah Haroun of Qatar, who clocked 44.64 in heat two as he held off home sprinter Matthew Hudson-Smith, whose time of 44.74, a season’s best, left him one place off the final. In all but two past World Championships, it would have been enough to advance.
There was disappointment too for the United States as Kerley proved their only qualifier from four entrants. Gil Roberts finished 10th overall with a time of 44.84, with Wilbert London III two places below him with a time of 45.12.
Former world and Olympic champion LaShawn Merritt, taking up a wild card place by dint of having won the IAAF Diamond League 400m title last season, could only manage 20th place overall with a time of 45.52.
Such is the talent that has now been gathered that the impending men’s 400m final looks like being one of the stand-out events of these championships. You wouldn’t bet against Van Niekerk, whose world record stands at 43.03, winning. But he might even need to reach below 43 seconds to do so.
Mike Rowbottom for the IAAF
