It’s been only 24 hours since the new african record of the 400mt race by Wayde Van Niekerk, who has run the parisian stage of the Diamond League in 43”96, first athlete in history to finish under 44 seconds outside the american continent. The former african record-breaker was Isaac Makwala with 44”01, made at the La Chaux-de-Fonds meeting in 2014.
Isaac Makwala was awaited to attend this year edition of the prestigious Resisprint International, to repeat last year outstanding performance
Makwala not only managed to undermine Van Niekerk, but also wrote an important page of the 400m race history, by strongly taking a place in the all-time ranking of the discipline (43”72).
Overall the competition has been a success for the asian athletes too. The young, Abdalelah Haroun, has established the asian junior record in 44”27, taking the “silver” in the all-time u20 ranking, behind Steve Lewis (43”87) who in Seoul ’88 won the gold medal, beating world famous record-breaker Harry “butch” Reynolds.
Henricho Bruintjies manages to win in 100mt dash, another race dominated by an african athletes. The South african racer (class of ’93), first made the new National Record (9”97) in the heat and then won the finals in 10”28
Even the 400mt women dash has also been dominated by african athletes, in this case, nigerian.
Patience George, fought head to head with Mupopo Kabange (Zambia), and barely made it in the end, leaving Kabange only a tenth of a second behind her : 23”76 against 23”86.
Enrico Demonte wins and gets his name up in this season national rankings, finishing the 200mt in 20”55, leaving behind the swedish atlhete Johan Wissman.
Lastly in the 400Hs dash, the swiss Lea Sprunger takes from Africa the possibility of a fourth winning race, getting first place in 55”60.
Picture: Isaac Makwala (AFP/Scanpix)