South African Wayde van Niekerk scorched to a remarkable victory in the men’s 400m at the world championships in Beijing on Wednesday.

Van Niekerk became South Africa’s first world sprint champion as he stormed around the one-lap race in 43.48 seconds, becoming the fourth fastest athlete in the event and the quickest non-American.

A loaded field saw defending champion LaShawn Merritt, who also won the world title in Berlin in 2009, timed a personal best of 43.65sec for silver, while Grenada’s Olympic champion Kirani James claimed bronze in a season’s best of 43.78sec.

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Elsewhere in Beijing on Wednesday, Hyvin Kiyeng Jepkemoi of Kenya claimed victory in the women’s 3000m steeplechase.

Jepkemoi timed 9min 19.11sec to pip Tunisia Habiba Ghribi, who clocked 9:19.24 for silver.

Germany’s Gesa Felicitas Krause ran a personal best of 9:19.25 for bronze.