With challenger not admitted, Van Niekerk cruises to victory

“I came here for a medal,” a healthy looking Makwala said in an interview with BBC Sports. “Some people force you to withdraw. I’m OK to run, but someone’s saying you can’t run. It’s a bad thing.”

The IAAF put out its own statement defending the decision, saying it “is very sorry that the hard work and talent of Isaac Makwala won’t be on display tonight but we have to think of the welfare of all athletes.”

But that was hardly the end of the debate.

Social media erupted with second-guessing and hypotheticals, including: What would the IAAF have done if this had been Usain Bolt? And, What’s the use of telling someone you’re sick when they’re just going to bar you from the stadium?

The innocent bystander was Van Niekerk, who, truth be told, would’ve been favoured to win this race had Makwala been there anyway. He is the world-record holder and Olympic champion and is being touted as the planet’s greatest sprinter in a post-Bolt world.

Van Niekerk won the race in a pedestrian-for-him 43.98 seconds, which was still two full paces ahead of silver and bronze medallists Steven Gardiner and Abdalelah Haroun.

“It was just definitely a heartbreaking moment,” Van Niekerk said. “I saw him just before the 200-meter heat and the only thing I could think of was wrapping my arms around him and telling him to get well soon. As much as you want to leave with gold medals, you want to go out there with the best guys also out there.”

Makwala wasn’t the only top runner missing.

Minutes before her heat in the 200 metres was to start, Tori Bowie withdrew. The American was in the stadium and went through warm-ups, but the scrapes and bruises on her hip from the dive over the line in her 100-meter victory two nights before hadn’t healed enough for her to race again. Her status for the relays Friday and Saturday was to be determined.

Also missing was David Rudisha of Kenya, the world-record holder at 800 metres who pulled out last week with a leg injury — a move that turned the event into a free-for-all. Pierre-Ambroise Bosse of France wound up with the gold.

Other winners were no surprise: Conseslus Kipruto of Kenya in the steeplechase and Barbora Spotakova of the Czech Republic in the javelin — a victory that came a decade after her last world title.

America’s brightest moment came from Sam Kendricks, who was the only pole vaulter to clear 5.95 metres and captured his country’s third gold medal of the meet.

Third-place finisher Renaud Lavillenie of France — booed mercilessly at last year’s Olympics when he set the bar at a height that would’ve won him gold over a Brazilian favourite — also used his final attempt this year to go for the win at 6.01 instead of trying for second at 5.95.

“Silver or bronze, it’s almost the same,” Lavillenie explained. “You have one champion and two other medallists .”

Pole vault may have been the best pure competition, but the evening will also be remembered for the showdown that never transpired: Makwala vs. Van Niekerk.

“As an athlete, as a brother, I would’ve liked to see my brother given a chance and do whatever he could do best,” said Nijel Amos, an 800-meter finalist from Botswana.

Hard to argue with that — and Van Niekerk certainly did not.

“I have sympathy for him,” he said. “I wish I could give him my medal.”

He might have one to spare. With Bolt not racing in the 200, and Makwala — who would’ve contended at that distance, too — unable to get to the starting line, the odds of Van Niekerk completing the 200-400 double just keep getting better.

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More AP track coverage: https://www.apnews.com/tag/London2017

Eddie Pells, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

With challenger not admitted, Van Niekerk cruises to victory

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