Wayde van Niekerk, Sinesipho Dambile advance to 200m semifinals in Tokyo

Wayde van Niekerk and Sinesipho Dambile advanced to the 200m semifinals at the world championships in Tokyo, both securing automatic spots by finishing in the top three of their heats on Wednesday.

In the only medal action for South Africa, Tshepo Tshite ended ninth near the back of a nail-biting 1,500m race narrowly won by late-charging Isaac Nader of Portugal. 

Nader crossed the line in 3min 34.10sec to edge Briton Jake Wightman by two-hundredths of a second, with Tshite clocking 3:35.50.

Zakithi Nene is the big hope to win South Africa’s first world championship medal since 2017 in the men’s 400m final on Thursday.

Van Niekerk, the 400m champion in London eight years ago, executed a great bend to ensure he hit the straight in the lead before Alexander Ogando of the Dominican Republic passed him to win in 20.10.

Van Niekerk, who also took the 200m silver in 2017, slowed up before finishing second in 20.19. 

“Today was a positive one, so regroup and get ready for tomorrow,” Van Niekerk told Modern Athlete magazine. “It was comfortable. I think there was a lot of rust that needed to come off today as well.”

Sinesipho Dambile finished third in his heat in 20.27, just seven-thousandths of a second behind second-placed Nigerian Udodi Chudi Onwuzurike.

Naeem Jack, just 18, finished fifth in his heat in 20.65, though ahead of him Australia’s 17-year-old sensation, Gout Gout, advanced by finishing third.

Five sprinters dipped under 20 seconds in the 200m, with Jamaican Brian Levell leading the way on 19.84, ahead of Zimbabwe’s Tapiwanashe Makarawu (19.91) and Americans Courtney Lindsey (19.95), Kenneth Bednarek (19.98) and Noah Lyles (19.99).

Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo of Botswana comfortably won his heat in 20.18. 

Van Niekerk will face Bednarek, Ogando and Zimbabwe’s other star sprinter, Makanakaishe Charamba, who went 20.06 in his heat, in the semifinal (2.02pm).

Dambile is up against Lyles and Makarawu (2.16pm).

Zeney van der Walt, a member of the mixed 4x400m relay that broke the African record on Saturday, didn’t have the legs in her 400m semifinal, crossing the line seventh in 55.06.

Douw Smit missed a spot in the men’s javelin final by 1.57m as he managed a best throw of 81.23m in the qualifying round on Wednesday.