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Stakes are high as the sprinter already has limited training time for competitions.
World 400m record holder Wayde van Niekerk will know at the end of the month whether his comeback from injury will have to be shelved for the second year in a row.
The double world and reigning Olympic champion, who last ran internationally when he won silver at the IAAF World Championships in London in 2017, had earmarked this season as the year he would return to the track. He tore the meniscus and anterior cruciate ligament in his knee during a celebrity touch rugby game.
However, after winning a training 400m run in Bloemfontein in February in his only appearance in South Africa, Van Niekerk – never one to do things by half measures – suffered a setback as he intensified his training for his European debut this season, bruising a bone in the same knee six weeks ago.
The prognosis had been that recovery from the new injury would be six weeks. But that time elapsed this week.
His agent, Peet van Zyl, says a decision on whether he will continue with the comeback will only be made after a trip to Doha, Qatar, in the middle of this month.
“Wayde is going to go to Doha from mid-August to the end of August for final check-ups,” Van Zyl said this week.
“They will do tests; they are going to make him run, and they’ll conduct strength and conditioning tests. Based on all this, coach Ans Botha and the medical team will make a call regarding whether Wayde is ready to race.”
The stakes seem pretty high as Van Zyl suggested that the decision about whether Van Niekerk was ready to race would entail his being able to run a 43-second lap on his return – a tall order for an athlete who hasn’t competed in two years and has only run a lap in 47 seconds to date.
What’s ramping up the pressure on Van Niekerk is the fact that, by the time he and his team decide whether to press on with his return this year, they will have only a month left to work on the defence of his 400m title, as this year’s World Championships – which will be held in Doha – begin on September 28.
Also, Van Niekerk will find himself in a race against time to prove to Athletics SA (ASA) that he is fit to take up his place in the governing body’s team.
The current agreement between the athlete and ASA is that he has until September 6 to prove his fitness.
Theoretically, this would mean that Van Niekerk has two Diamond League meetings – in Zurich on August 29 and in Belgium on September 6 – to show his readiness.
As the defending world champion, Van Niekerk is exempt from having to satisfy qualifying criteria other than the fact that he must prove he is fit to race.
On track, the 27-year-old will not return to a scene dominated by familiar foes Kirani James and LaShawn Merritt.
US sprinter Michael Norman (21) heads the year’s top lists in the event, having run 43.45 seconds in Torrance, California, in April.
Apart from being the fastest time this year, the mark is also the sixth-fastest in history and the fastest run before June.
