Bursting out of the blocks in Lane 8, Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa did not see another runner during the entire Olympic 400-meter final.
He didn’t need to. His only real competition was the clock.
The South African sprinter broke Michael Johnson’s 17-year-old world record on Sunday night in Rio de Janeiro, leaving two of the greatest one-lap runners of this era in his dust. Van Niekerk finished in 43.03 seconds — 0.15 of a second faster than Johnson’s time in 1999. Johnson’s mark was had been considered one of the almost untouchable records in track.