Wayde van Niekerk dips below 44 seconds in 400m

This is fantastic! To anyone asking where did this come from now? This is no fluke, Wayde has been making steady progress the last few years in one the most difficult events in athletics. Difficult you say? Yes, ask anybody who has ever prepared for and competed in 400m at the highest levels. Your performance is determined by your ability to convert all your available energy into as much speed as possible for 400m.
If you misjudge this you hit the wall. You would have seen athletics look like someone is adding bricks to a hidden back pack and they become unable to lift their legs as high or as fast. Their stride length shorten and every one else suddenly looks faster. If they are still running 10m after the finish line they could have completed in a faster time. With the perfect 400m race you should feel beautiful for 200m and are usually unaware of the first half of the race. Then you start feeling nausea at around 250-300m but you relax while maintain form and speed until 1 step after the finish line.

Most 400m hurdlers would rather jump over a hurdle 10 times than running 400m without the hurdles. Most 800m runners would rather do 2 laps than 1.

Read more here http://www.iaaf.org/news/report/van-niekerk-paris