The men's 400 world record moves rarely, but it does move dramatically

RIO DE JANEIRO — Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa smashed the world record in the 400 meters on Sunday, burying a strong field and stunning the Olympic Stadium crowd.

Including Usain Bolt, who was in the tunnel preparing to race in the 100.

Van Niekerk sprinted away from the previous two Olympic gold medalists — Kirani James of Grenada and LaShawn Merritt of the USA — stopping the clock in an astonishing 43.03.

The number itself ...

43.03

... is hard to believe.

Track and field has been keeping records for more than a century, and the sprinting records have stood the test of time. When they move, they move in small increments, hundredths of seconds (Bolt's feats aside). But not so much in the men's 400, where the record moves rarely, but it moves big.

Just like van Niekerk on Sunday.

The men's 400 record has changed hands three times in the last 48 years:

1968: Lee Evans — 43.86 (Olympic final)

1988: Butch Reynolds — 43.29 ... lowers the record by .57.

1999: Michael Johnson — 43.18 ... lowers the record by .11. (World Championships final)

2016: van Niekerk — 43.03 ... lowers the record by .15, and .42 faster than he had ever run before. (Olympic final)

Van Niekerk's previous personal best, 43.45 run in the world championships last year, had been the fastest time in the world since Jeremy Wariner ran his 43.45 in 2007

Considering that sub-44 400s are still rare, relatively speaking — 66 times in history by 15 different men — it's difficult to even fathom a sub-43. One notable exception was when Johnson famously ran a 42.9 on the anchor leg of the USA's gold-medal-winning 4x400 relay at the 1993 world championships. But that was a relay split with a moving start.

The 24-year-old van Niekerk looked smooth, strong and fast down the stretch, pulling away from James and Merritt, who ran well (43.76 and 43.85, respectively). Who knows how low he goes?

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