Team SA pin medal hopes on Zakithi Nene in 400m as Wayde van Niekerk cruise in 200m

Zakithi Nene will be looking to end Team South Africa’s eight-year medal drought at the World Athletics Championships on Thursday when he lines up in the men’s 400m final.

Nene stormed into the final in Tokyo after winning his heat on Tuesday, the South African one-lap star overcoming two restarts to put himself into medal contention. Nene cruised home in a fast time of 44.20, despite coasting over the final 100m.

He has consistently clocked sub-45-second times, with his standout performance being a personal best and world-leading 43.76 in Kenya this past May. He also had a solid Diamond League campaign, finishing second in Rome behind Olympic champion Quincy Hall.

However, his time was only the fifth fastest in the semi-finals, with Botswana’s Busang Collen Kebinatshibi emerging as the favourite after clocking a new world-leading time of 43.61 in the third semi.

On Wednesday, veteran sprinter Wayde van Niekerk had a successful start to his World Championship campaign, breezing through to the quarter-finals of the men’s 200m.

The 400m world-record holder, who is chasing his first World Championship medal since 2017, finished second in his heat with a time of 20.19 seconds behind Alexander Ogando of the Dominican Republic.

Van Niekerk, who won gold in the 400m and silver in the 200m, hasn’t reached the same levels since suffering a freak knee injury during a celebrity touch rugby match ahead of a Springbok game at a wet Newlands in Cape Town in 2017.

He will be joined in the semi-finals by fellow South African Sinesipho Dambile, who was nearly disqualified after a false start but was given a green card and ultimately finished third in his heat in 20.27.

However, Naeem Jack didn’t manage to qualify for the semis after finishing fifth in the fifth heat, clocking 20.65.

Van Niekerk, who decided to focus solely on the 200m after his comeback at last year’s Paris Olympics, said there were “a lot of positives” from his latest performance.

“I think there’s a lot of regulating the nerves and a bit of mentally centring myself, but it’s been going well so far,” said the South African star.

“The fact that I’m walking away from the events healthy and able to be in good spirits — I think that’s more important for me at this moment.”

Elsewhere on the track, in the women’s 400m hurdles, Zenéy van der Walt qualified for Friday’s final after finishing second in the third heat.

Van der Walt ran a season’s best time of 53.90, beating her previous 2025 best of 54.25.

In the men’s 1500m final, South Africa’s Tshepo Tshite finished ninth in a time of 3:35.50 after a thrilling race, which saw Portugal's Isaac Nader outsprint Briton Jake Wightman to claim the gold.

Nader produced a devastating attack in the home straight to snatch victory in 3:34.10, two-hundredths of a second ahead of the 2022 world champion Wightman.