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Van Niekerk and Maswanganyi into 200m semis─── MORGAN PIEK 07:46 Tue, 06 Aug 2024
“It was a good initial run out of the bend but I know there’s still a bit of work that needs to be done in the latter stage of the race.”
The 400m world record holder, Wayde van Niekerk, is in Paris’s 200m semi-finals of the 2024 Olympic Games.
On Monday night, Van Niekerk finished third in his heat in 20.42 seconds to automatically qualify for the semi-finals. Joseph Fahnbulleh of Liberia won this heat in 20.20 seconds, while Fostine Eseosa Desalu of Italy was second in 20.26 seconds.
Shaun Maswanganyi in turn finished third in the fifth heat with a time of 20.20 seconds to advance to the semi-finals as well. Erriyon Knighton of the USA clocked a blistering 19.99 to win this heat, while Tapiwanashe Makarawu of Zimbabwe finished in second in an impressive time of 20.07 seconds.
Van Niekerk said he is confident that he can do better in the semi-finals.
“It was a good initial run out of the bend but I know there’s still a bit of work that needs to be done in the latter stage of the race,” said Van Niekerk.
“We’ll shake that off and try again next round. I am a bit rusty out of the first round but I know that I can do better. I still had to do some final preparation and work just before the competition so I stayed around here just to get the feel back again.”
Maswanganyi said it was important to qualify and not have to overexert himself by running in the repechage rounds.
“I’m just happy to qualify nicely - the biggest thing is you don’t want to run too many races,” said the young sprinter.
“Thankfully, I made it through for the semi-finals and I don’t have to run the repechage round but overall, I’m pretty satisfied. I know it could be a little bit better off the turn, that will make my straight a lot easier, but 20.20 is one of my fastest times and that is a horribly executed race, so I know there is more to work on.”
Meanwhile, Benjamin Richardson, in heat three, was last in a time of 51.86 seconds. He pulled up injured with about 80m remaining. He will have another chance of qualifying in the repechage rounds on Tuesday afternoon, however, it’s unlikely he will be able to compete and he is also in doubt for the 4 x 100m relays.
The semi-finals will take place on Wednesday evening at 20:02.
