Lucky Van Niekerk scrapes into World Champs finals

World record holder Wayde van Niekerk barely snuck into the final of the 400m at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest on Tuesday night, finishing third in his semi-final to qualify via the non-automatic qualifiers route.

Van Niekerk, who had won all eight of his races this year with a fastest time of 44.08sec, started a little too fast and couldn't find that famed finishing kick which took him to a world record of 43.03sec at the Rio Olympics, with Jamaica's Antonio Watson (44.13) and American Vernon Norwood (44.26) both pipping him to the automatic qualifying positions in personal best efforts.

Having run in the first semi-final, Van Niekerk had to squirm in athletics' latest version of purgatory - the Queue Room - which is World Athletics' latest innovation of having athletes sit in a waiting lounge while they see if their times are fast enough for the fastest loser positions. Van Niekerk survived both of the subsequent semis as nobody produced a faster finishing time outside the automatic qualifiers than his. When he realised that he made it, he hugged his friend and long-time rival Kirani James in relief.

Unfortunately, Van Niekerk's 400m teammate Zakithi Nene couldn't make it to the final from the third semi despite Olympic champion Steven Gardiner pulling up lame with injury in the third and final semi. Nene finished fifth in a time of 45.64sec, well outside the personal best of 44.74sec he had matched earlier this season.

After winning his heat on Sunday, Van Niekerk had told the media: "The heats and semi-finals are about surviving, so I had to read my competitors and engage with them. I think it should be a similar strategy in the semis and then give it [all] that's left in the final."

Little did he know he