{"id":90166,"date":"2025-09-22T16:52:43","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T16:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/awesome-foursome-ends-sa-medal-drought"},"modified":"2025-09-22T18:14:32","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T18:14:32","slug":"awesome-foursome-ends-sa-medal-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/awesome-foursome-ends-sa-medal-drought","title":{"rendered":"Awesome Foursome Ends SA Medal Drought"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Wayde van Niekerk completed a sensational comeback as he won his first world championship medal in eight years to give South Africa bronze in a nail-biting 4x400m final in Tokyo on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Pouring rain couldn\u2019t douse the heat of competition with just seven-hundredths of a second separating the top three teams.<\/p>\n

Pre-race favourites Botswana crossed the line first in 2 min 57.76 sec, securing a second gold to 400m world champion Busang Kebinatshipi.<\/p>\n

American 400m hurdles king Rai Benjamin and South African kingpin Zakithi Nene crossed the line so close together their teams were both awarded the same time, 2:57.83, separated by two-thousandths of a second.<\/p>\n

It was a great all-round effort by Lythe Pillay, Udeme Okon, Van Niekerk and Nene, ending a South African medal drought that had stretched through three consecutive world championships \u2014 Doha 2019, Oregon 2022 and Budapest 2023.<\/p>\n

But the contribution of Van Niekerk, the 400m world record-holder whose career was derailed by a terrible knee injury in 2017, was priceless on the night.<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old, who owns the 2015 and 2017 400m world titles and 2016 Olympic crown, clocked the fastest split of the entire relay, going 43.27 in the third leg.<\/p>\n

And then Nene bounced back from the disappointment of his fifth place in Thursday\u2019s 400m final as he closed out the final lap with the second-best time of the relay, 43.93.<\/p>\n

On that final lap he closed the distance on the world champions from Botswana and the US, who went 44.14 and 44.40 respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really another main event to me,\u201d said Nene. \u201cI don’t treat it as an additional event, it shares the same amount of focus as the individual 400m. \u201c[I\u2019m] so proud of the guys, proud of my brothers here. And yeah, looking forward to the journey ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pillay got the team off to a decent start on the opening leg, his 45.02 being the second-fastest over the first 400m.<\/p>\n

Matric pupil Udeme Okon, the rain limiting his vision through his glasses, went 45.62, slower than the 45.17 he did in the heats, but he kept his team in the fight before Van Niekerk and Nene entrenched the team in the medals.<\/p>\n

Van Niekerk declined to disclose whether he planned to continue racing in future. \u201cCan I just wear the medal first and soak in the moment?<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest with you, the love that I’ve developed for this group of 400m athletes. We were competitors to an extent, but at the same time, this is a generation that I learnt to care for and love a lot, and I really see the growth in each and every one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

His season had been about preparing for this relay. \u201cMy entire year was focused on running today with these guys, to be as healthy as I can, in the best shape that I can to represent the country with these guys. It was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pillay said the team was a combination of more than the runners. \u201cI feel like the chemistry is actually our strength at the moment, not just our raw talent. Whatever happens going forward, I know we\u2019re in good hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I have a good team to back me. I know I have a good team that I can contribute to. Hopefully, Wayde for one more year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Niekerk responded with laughter.<\/p>\n

Medals will also be going to the two heat runners, Gardeo Isaacs, who did sterling duty in the opening legs of this relay as well as the mixed 4x400m, and Leendert Koekemoer, the other schoolboy in the squad.<\/p>\n

This was South Africa’s third 4x400m medal at the world championships, after a silver at Daegu 2011 and bronze at Seville 1999.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. Wayde van Niekerk completed a sensational comeback as he won his first world championship medal in eight years to give South Africa bronze in a nail-biting 4x400m final in Tokyo on Sunday. Pouring rain couldn\u2019t douse the heat of competition with just seven-hundredths of a second separating the top three teams. Pre-race […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":90165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-90166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nAwesome Foursome Ends SA Medal Drought - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Wayde van Niekerk completed a sensational comeback as he won his first world championship medal in eight years to give S ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/awesome-foursome-ends-sa-medal-drought\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Awesome Foursome Ends SA Medal Drought\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Wayde van Niekerk completed a sensational comeback as he won his first world championship medal in eight years to give S ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/awesome-foursome-ends-sa-medal-drought\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-22T16:52:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-22T18:14:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1758552049.531059.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"666\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/awesome-foursome-ends-sa-medal-drought#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/awesome-foursome-ends-sa-medal-drought\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Awesome Foursome Ends SA Medal Drought\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-22T16:52:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-22T18:14:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/awesome-foursome-ends-sa-medal-drought\"},\"wordCount\":627,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/awesome-foursome-ends-sa-medal-drought#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1758552049.531059.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/awesome-foursome-ends-sa-medal-drought#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/awesome-foursome-ends-sa-medal-drought\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/awesome-foursome-ends-sa-medal-drought\",\"name\":\"Awesome Foursome Ends SA Medal Drought - 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