Despite Wayde Van Niekerk dropping his former coach Tannie Ans Botha for American coach, Botha has decided to open up against different rumours thrown up as result of the move. Botha insisted there was no bad blood and added the move has her blessing.
“I can only say that there is no ill-feeling between me and Wayde‚” Botha said. “I wish him all the best and happiness in the future. There are no problems between me and him because he has joined another coach. I knew about this move for quite a while before it was announced.
“I am happy that I have contributed something to his professional and personal life. There was a media release last week about this and I don’t have anything more to say.”
Van Niekerk will be working with sprint coach Lance Brauman in Claremont‚ Florida‚ where he will train alongside Lyles and women’s Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo.
He has missed major championships in the past few years after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) during a charity rugby match. He would have likely missed out on the Tokyo Olympics had the event taken place in 2020 as originally planned.
Among his impressive achievements‚ Van Niekerk is the first athlete to run the 100m under 10 sec‚ the 200m under 20 sec and the 400m under 44 sec.
