Getting placed in lane 8 for a major track and field race generally means that you’ll at best struggle to win a medal.
In the case of South Africa’s Wayde Van Niekerk, running out of lane 8 for the final of the men’s 400 did nothing to keep him from either taking gold or shattering Michael Johnson’s world record.
Van Niekerk looked comfortable throughout the race, winning in an astonishing time of 43.03 seconds, breaking the Olympic record (43.49) by more than four tenths of a second and the world record (43.18) by 15 one hundredths of a second.