Wayde van Niekerk, the Olympic and world champion and world-record holder at 400m, suffered a knee bone bruise that sets back his international return from 2017 knee surgery five or six weeks.
Van Niekerk, who has raced once since the summer of 2017, is still hopeful of defending his world title in about three months in Doha.
“It’s very disappointing as I probably pushed myself too hard, but I’m now working towards the goal patiently,” he said in a press release. “I will review my competition schedule with my team, and together with my coach we will decide where and when to race.”
Van Niekerk was scheduled to return this summer, namely at a Diamond League meet in London in three weeks. A representative for van Niekerk said that he withdrew from the meet. Van Niekerk’s account also tweeted that he “won’t be participating in the upcoming Diamond League events.” The Diamond League regular season runs through Aug. 24.
Van Niekerk has a bye into worlds as a defending champion. Two months after the 2017 Worlds, he tore a meniscus and an ACL in a celebrity tag rugby match. Van Niekerk made a low-key return at a meet in South Africa on Feb. 28, clocking 47.28 seconds. His world record from the Rio Olympics is 43.03.
During his absence, American Michael Norman emerged as the world’s top 400m runner (also in the absence of 2008 Olympic champ LaShawn Merritt and 2012 gold medalist Kirani James). Norman, 21, ran the sixth-fastest lap in history on April 20, a 43.45 that was also the fastest 400m ever run before the month of June.
Van Niekerk’s best time since Rio was 43.62. He has never raced Norman head to head.
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