Ballito’s Zakithi Nene will line up against the world’s best athletes in two events at this year’s Olympic Games in Paris.
The 400m specialist has had a fantastic start to the season, performing well in national events before claiming a World Relay Championships silver medal on Sunday night.
The event, held in Nassau in the Bahamas, drew the best relay teams from across the globe to compete in men’s, women’s and mixed 4x100m and 4x400m races.
South Africa breezed through their 4x400m heat in second position, enough to earn automatic Olympic qualification and a spot in the final.
Running alongside Gardeo Isaacs, Lythe Pillay and Antonie Nortje in the final, Zak helped to propel the quartet past strong Belgian and Italian teams to finish second behind Botswana in a time of 3:00.75.
World 400m record holder Wayde van Niekerk had run in the heats but sat out of the final because of an injury niggle, while favourites America were disqualified after a lane infraction in their heat.
It will be an excellent momentum builder for both southern African teams ahead of the Olympics in Paris, which kick off at the end of July.
Aside from the relay however, Zak will also line up in the individual 400m event and will be hoping to match Van Niekerk’s gold medal effort in Brazil in 2016.
South Africa’s 4x100m team also qualified in the Bahamas while the non-qualified teams will now need to rely on their world rankings to see if they can get a berth in Paris.
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