"I'm going to go out there and be ridiculous and see what happens. I've got nothing to lose."

Those were the words of 400m world record holder Van Niekerk ahead of his 300m race at the Golden Spike Meet in Ostrava today, and he certainly followed through on them. Van Niekerk decimated the field and ran 30.81, a new world best at the distance (the IAAF does not recognize 300m marks as world records). van Niekerk's mark bettered both Usain Bolt's meeting record of 30.97 and former 400m world record holder Michael Johnson's world best of 30.85.

Van Niekerk was already the first ever sprinter to run sub-10 in the 100m, sub-20 in the 200m, and sub-44 in the 400m, and now he can add an impressive sub-31 in the 300m to that résumé. Though his much-anticipated matchup with Bolt over 200m will likely never happen as Bolt is retiring this year, van Niekerk will be running the 200m and 400m at this summer's World Championships in London.