Perfect Pillay earns silver to secure Wayde’s first medal in seven years

Lythe Pillay delivered a brilliant final-leg run to earn SA the men’s 4x400m silver at World Relays in Bahamas on Sunday night (Monday morning SA time) and secure Wayde van Niekerk his first international medal in seven years.

A classy Botswana outfit won gold in a 2min 59.11sec world lead, with Pillay storming through from fifth place to finish second in 3:00.75, chasing down Belgium, Japan and Italy on the final lap.

The Olympic and world champion US team were not in the race, having been disqualified in the heats, though they went 2:59.95 in their second Olympic qualifying heat on Sunday. 

Van Niekerk ran the third leg in the heats on Saturday morning, when SA clocked 2:59.76, but he pulled out of the final because of a niggle, coach Paul Gorries said. Relay heat runners also receive medals. 

Antonie Nortjé took Van Niekerk’s place on the third leg and did his job by keeping the team in touch with the podium contenders.

Gardeo Isaacs, on the first leg, was second when handing over the baton to Zakithi Nene, who was third passing it to Nortjé. 

Pillay, the 2022 under-20 400m world champion, had been below his best less than three hours earlier while competing in a failed bid to qualify the mixed 4x400m side, where he had taken the place of Nortjé.

But he was sensational in the men’s final, clocking the fastest lap outside Botswana’s two main stars, going 44.42 to clinch the gong and showing that a fully fit SA team will be a contender come the Paris Olympics from July 27 to August 11.

This was SA’s first world relays medal since Yokohama 2019, when the men’s 4x200m team took silver.

It was also Van Niekerk’s first international medal since the 2017 World Championships in London, where he took the 400m gold and 200m silver before injuring his right knee in a game of touch rugby shortly afterwards.

Van Niekerk, who turns 32 shortly before the Paris Games, has been fighting to get back to the sort of form that saw him set the 43.03 world record at Rio 2016.

He was fifth at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene and seventh at 2023’s edition in Budapest. During 2023 he also ran his fastest 400m time since the injury at 44.08.

* Akani Simbine anchored SA’s 4x100m posse of speed merchants to the Paris Olympics as they won their qualification heat in Bahamas.

The 4x100m line-up sported one change from the outfit that missed out on the previous day, bringing in Bradley Nkoana for out-of-form Clarence Munyai on the third leg, and it paid off handsomely as they whipped the baton around the track in 38.08sec, the fourth-fastest time by a SA 4x100m team.

Schoolboy Bayanda Walaza had another reasonable start and Benjamin Richardson ignited on the second leg, clocking 9.00 down the back straight to take SA from fifth position to first.

Nkoana stayed in front as he negotiated the top bend in 9.49 and Simbine finished it off in style with a lightning 8.92.