By David O’Sullivan
Even a die-hard rugby fan will have to admit that no matter what happens on the field at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit when South Africa take on Argentina in the opening match of the Castle Rugby Championship on Saturday, it won’t come close to rivalling Wayde van Niekerk’s incredible 400m world record at the Rio Olympics for sheer drama.
It’s a feat that’s already threatening to overshadow Usain Bolt’s triple 100m and 200m gold medal achievement as the seminal moment of the track and field competition at this year’s Games. The Washington Post put it in a wonderfully understated way, which seemed appropriate given Van Niekerk’s wonderfully understated demeanour: “On a warm night at Olympic Stadium, Wayde van Niekerk of Cape Town, South Africa, ran once around an oval track faster than any man had done before.”
So much faster. He shattered the great American Michael Johnson’s 17-year old world record of 43.18s by 0.15 seconds. This might be an impossibly teeny length of time, but at Van Niekerk’s pace he would have been almost a metre and a half in front of Johnson at the finish line. In the high speed world of Olympic athletics, that’s a significant amount of daylight.
I watched Johnson set the 400m Olympic record of 43.49s at the Atlanta Games. His power and speed defied belief as he surged round the final bend comfortably in the lead with his familiar upright stance and pumping arms and legs. As he accelerated into the final straight with only the clock to beat, the crowd made a noise that can best be described as a combination of a gasp and a roar. We were watching something superhuman. 20 years later on that warm night in Rio, Wayde van Niekerk was running even faster.
Springbok coach Allister Coetzee was quick to seize an initiative, fully aware that Van Niekerk’s heroics would be a powerful motivating force for his players. As his squad was preparing for Saturday’s Test against Argentina, he told reporters: “We don’t just live in our own bubble, we should draw confidence and be proud of the fact that a South African dominated an event such as that at the Olympics. We have spoken of what Wayde was able to do, and it’s really great to wake up to that sort of news and talk about it around the breakfast table.”
There was a similar buzz around the breakfast table in the Proteas’ hotel in Durban as they prepared for their Test match against New Zealand at Kingsmead. Dean Elgar said: “It’s something to unite us. One person doing that was unbelievable. Hopefully as a team we can start doing that a lot more and getting people behind us.”
There’s no doubt that the achievement of one sportsperson can have an impact on the performance of others. We saw it at the Atlanta Games. En route to her gold medal in the 100m breaststroke, Penny Heyns set a world record in her semi-final in the morning session.
A couple of hours later, SA men’s hockey captain Wayne Graham used that achievement to motivate his players as they prepared to take on Australia (the eventual bronze medallists) in a group match. The experienced Aussies were expected to trounce the debutantes from South Africa, but, fired up by Heyns’s performance in the pool, the South Africans held them to a surprise 1-all draw. After the match, Graham paid tribute to Heyns for providing his team with a much-needed spark of inspiration.
The day after Heyns had won South Africa’s first gold medal since readmission to the Games, her teammate Marianne Kriel used that victory as motivation to swim the race of her life and win bronze in the 100m backstroke.
A previous holder of the South African 400m record was a rugby player. Jaco Reinach was one of the fastest rugby players of his generation, and this was the era of two other great speedsters – Danie Gerber and Carel du Plessis.
Read also: SA hero Wayde gives credit to a Higher Power. Hint: It’s not of this earth.
Reinach set the 400m record at a meeting in Bloemfontein in April 1983, at the same stadium where he enthralled the crowds as a rugby player for Free State. His time was 45.01 seconds and the record stood for nearly 16 years before it was broken by Arnaud Malherbe in March 1999.
Reinach was the last person to get national colours for athletics and play for the Springboks. He played four times for the Boks against the Cavaliers, scoring an exhilarating try in the 3rd match of the series at Loftus Versfeld on 24 May 1986. Hooker Uli Schmidt gathered a loose ball, flicked a quick pass to Danie Gerber on his right, who drew an opposition player and put Reinach away. He wasn’t going to be caught and commentator Gerhard Viviers knew it. He simply repeated “hier is spoed!!” (this is speed) over and over as Reinach powered his way down the wing, easily outstripping the hapless Cavaliers to dive over the line.
He was tragically killed in a car accident at the age of 35 when his car hit a pool of water in the road and aquaplaned into a tree. One of his three sons, Cobus, was just six years old and he would inherit his father’s rugby abilities, playing scrumhalf for the Sharks and the Springboks.
Global Champion to global champion: Usain Bolt cheers SA's Wayde Van Niekerk after Wayde set 400m world record pic.twitter.com/KStFDzIw8e
— Sure Kamhunga (@sure_kamhunga) August 15, 2016
We’re unlikely to see rugby players running at speeds like Wayde van Niekerk. The modern-day sprinter tends to be lighter than the average centre or winger (with the possible exception of Usain Bolt). Bulk is important for rugby players if they’re to survive the physicality of the game, and bulk will slow them down.
Rugby’s fastest men such as Seabelo Senatla, Bryan Habana, Tonderai Chavhanga or American Sevens star Carlin Isles are all slower than Van Niekerk. Senatla’s best 100m time is 10.6s. Habana is the fastest of the current Springboks, boasting a 10.4s for the 100m, while Isles is a tenth of a second faster at 10.3s. Chavhanga was the fastest Super Rugby player with 10.27 for the 100m. Van Niekerk’s fastest 100m is a 9.98.
But the sight of Senatla, Habana, Chavhanga or Isles in full flight will get any rugby stadium to gasp and roar at the same time, and might even prompt a commentator to yell over and over: “hier kom spoed!”.
