It’s been a long road for Wayde van Niekerk. To be exact it’s been almost six years since he fatefully tore both his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and knee cartilage in an ill-advised touch rugby match in October of 2017. It was a catastrophic injury that threatened to end his career and for all of those six years he has been fighting to find a reason to ensure it didn’t.

On Thursday night, in the hot and humid Budapest National Athletics Stadium, Van Niekerk struggled to seventh and last place in the 400m final (one athlete was disqualified) in a relatively slow 45.11 seconds, after fading in the final 80 metres. It was only his second major final since the Rio Olympics in 2016 but at last year’s World Championships he finished fifth.

“Frustrated and disappointed. We all know that is it far from what I can do and, compared to the medallists, it wasn’t a good performance at all,” Van Niekerk said. “Looking at my form this year (he has a best of 44.08 compared to the winning time of Jamaica’s Antonio Watson of 44.22) I believe I can do better. I ran terribly and just didn’t execute right.”

When asked about his next steps, Van Niekerk was unsure.

“I dunno what’s next. I need to take a few days to process everything and take it from there. Mentally it’s been a journey and I’m still trying to learn and understand that. This mental thing is new to me but it’s something I have to deal with and process,” Van Niekerk said, suggesting that it was his mind rather than his body letting him down when it mattered most.

Earlier in the week Van Niekerk had scraped into the top eight during the semi-finals. Starting fast he looked to be sitting in a comfortable second position for most of the race before struggling over the last 100m – normally the part of the race that has been his strongest.

“People didn’t give up on me even when I had given up on myself. They showed me strength when I was weak so this has been a massive journey of gratitude.”

He finished third in the second heat which meant that he had to endure the purgatory of sitting in the ‘hot seats’ to watch the final of the three heats to see if he would make it through as one of only two non-automatic qualifiers who are awarded places based on time.

Speaking to a throng of journalists after his semi-final, Van Niekerk said he was grateful just to be back and racing at the top level but opened up about the difficulties he has had in motivating himself to continue his extended return.

“I don’t think it’s a confidence thing but this journey back has been a lot of ups and downs and faking it until you make it,” he said. “Waking up when you don’t want to, pitching up when you feel you can’t… Only God and my team have kept me going.

“People didn’t give up on me even when I had given up on myself. They showed me strength when I was weak so this has been a massive journey of gratitude.”

Back at the Rio Olympics in 2016, he was drawn in the outer lane 8 and, despite the bad lane draw, came through a blistering final 100m to break 17-year-old Michael Johnson’s 400m record with a staggering time 43.03 seconds. Close friend Usian Bolt even christened him the next superstar of world athletics as he also became the first athlete to run 100m under 10 seconds, the 200m under 20 seconds and the 400m under 44 seconds.

READ MORE ON: World Athletics Champs