Five years of injury and setbacks have plagued his career since the 2017 triumph in London, which included elimination at the semi-final stage at Tokyo 2020 (held in 2021). But the world record holder has just qualified for Friday's 400m World Championship final in Eugene, Oregon.

If anyone was counting, and Wayde van Niekerk was, it has been 1,786 days - or close to five years - since the 400m world record holder made a major athletics final.

But in the early hours of Thursday morning, on the Hayward Field track in Oregon, Van Niekerk turned back the clock to make the 2022 world championship final.

It's an event South Africa's premier sprinter has won twice before - in 2015 and 2017. Between those triumphs he sandwiched in an Olympic gold in Rio 2016 in a world record time of 43.03 seconds.

Five years of injury and setbacks have plagued his career since the 2017 triumph in London, which included elimination at the semi-final stage at Tokyo 2020 (held in 2021).

For Van Niekerk, who told Daily Maverick last week, that he was confident of making the final, but also of improving as the year goes on, it's vindication for...