South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk shocked many when he won gold in the 400-meter dash Sunday and broke a world record held by U.S. sprinter Michael Johnson.
Johnson’s record fell after being there for 17 years. Luckily for us, Johnson got to react to his record being broken in real time. Besides being active on Twitter, Johnson was analyzing the race for BBC. His response to van Niekerek’s performance was a classy and nice way to pass on the proverbial baton.
Congratulations @WaydeDreamer to you and your coach! Well done and deserved. Olympic Gold and World record. I know the feeling! #Rio2016
— Michael Johnson (@MJGold) August 15, 2016
The record being broken by anyone, particularly van Niekerk, had to be shocking to Johnson. The South African sprinter was in lane 8, a lane assignment that was expected to heavily hinder his chances at winning, much less breaking a world record. Van Niekerk also defeated a number of past winners while going on to win the gold.
Here’s what Johnson had to say on BBC:
“Oh my God.
“From lane 8. World record. He took it out so quick, and I’ve never seen from 200 to 400 anything like that. What we will want to see is what his splits were. He could have very well have run negative splits, meaning that he ran faster in that second 200 than he ran in the first 200, which would make this even more amazing.
“Well done to the youngster.”
You can’t expect anything better from Johnson. This is especially true given the fact the former U.S. sprinter had to react so quickly. Hope Solo could learn a thing or two from Johnson.
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