Zakithi Nene, the fastest 400m runner in the world so far this year, lines up at the Rome Diamond League meeting on Friday night against a field that boasts a combined 10 Olympic medals and 17 world championship gongs.
Nene, the anchor of SA’s golden 4x400m outfit at World Relays in China a month ago, raced to victory in Nairobi in 43.76sec at the weekend — a time that placed him atop the world list.
This year the 27-year-old has burst out of his role as a solid member of the national relay squad and entrenched himself as a serious individual medal contender at the world championships in Tokyo in September.
The Durban-based star is the form athlete going into Rome, looking to score the second Diamond League victory of his career against pedigreed competitors, topped by Olympic champion Quincy Hall of the US.
Nene beat Hall for the first time at the Rabat Diamond League in May in a race he led from the start, only to tire on the home straight and be overhauled by American Jacory Patterson, the only other sub-44 athlete this year.
But there are three athletes in the race whom Nene has not beaten, starting with former Olympic and world champion Kirani James of Grenada.
They have faced off five times with Nene finishing behind him every time.
Hall and James are the only entrants with faster personal bests, 43.40 and 43.74 respectively.
American Vernon Norwood has four Olympic, five world championship and two world indoor championship medals, all of them won in 4x400m relays.
He has also beaten Nene seven out of eight times.
Alexander Doom of Belgium has a world championship relay bronze as well as three world indoor championship golds, including one in the individual race.
Busang Kebinatshipi of Botswana and Briton Charles Dobson have made the podium in Olympic relays and Hungarian Attila Molnár has a world indoor relay bronze.
Nene has not yet beaten Doom and Kebinatshipi, but he holds a 5-1 advantage over Molnár. Friday will be the first time he goes against Dobson.
Edoardo Scotti, like Nene, has a World Relay gold, having been part of Italy’s victorious mixed 4x400m outfit in May. Nene leads him 4-0 in past encounters.
Nene, racing for the fifth time in less than a month, is scheduled to return home soon for another solid training block before building up to the world showpiece in Japan.
The only other South African scheduled to compete in Rome is Zeney Geldenhuys, who faces a 400m hurdles field that features French athlete Louise Maraval, who denied the South African a spot in last year’s Olympic final by seven-hundredths of a second.
The two have never gone head-to-head before.
The Pretoria-based star’s rivals include 2023 world championship bronze medallist Rushell Clayton of Jamaican.
Geldenhuys’ goals this year include breaking Myrtle Bothma’s 39-year-old 53.74 SA record. She will be looking to improve substantially on her 55.09 season’s best.
The meeting will be broadcast on SuperSport channel 208 from 9pm.
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