Wayde Van Niekerk: Noah Lyles Slams World Atheltics’ Message to 400m World Record Holder

• Noah Lyles has taken issue with World Athletics' message on Wayde Van Niekerk's birthday
• He turned a year older on July 15 ahead of next month's World Athletics Championships
• Van Niekerk will be going for a third world title and the first since his win in London in 2017

World 200-metre Champion, Noah Lyles, has called out the global governing body for athletics, World Athletics, for downplaying Wayde Van Niekerk's birthday.

The South African turned 31 on July 15, with World Athletics taking to their Twitter page to celebrate his day with him.

The athletics body left a beautiful message for the 400-metre world record-holder, who has shown signs of that blistering form he had at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The message read:

"Happy birthday [Wayde]! We celebrate your day by taking a closer look at all the performances of 400m #WorldAthleticsChamps gold [medalists] from the past 40 years. What's it going to take to win 400m 🥇 in [Budapest]?"

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However, Lyles had an issue with the second part of the message.

The American believes the federation ought to have kept their message about Van Niekerk's birthday only and not compare him with others who have come before and after.

"I’m sorry but isn’t the purpose of saying happy birthday to celebrate that one person? Not everyone [else] that has ever done the same race as them. If you want to talk about the 400m cool, but if you want to say happy birthday, don’t mix them in with other people."

Former world and Olympic champion, Michael Johnson, also weighed in by saying:

"Not sure what I’m supposed to say here. 'Thank you, but it’s not MY birthday' or 'Sorry [Wayde], I honestly had nothing to do with it?'"

Van Niekerk will take on an elite field next month in an attempt to win his third world title after triumphs in 2015 and 2017. The field is expected to include Muzala Samukonga of Zambia and USA's Rai Benjamin, among others.

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The current world record of 43.03 seconds in the one-lap race was set by the South African in 2016.

Fraser-Pryce reacts to Richardson's wig

In other athletics news, Sports Brief also reported on Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce's hilarious response when asked whether she would ever remove her hair-piece before a race.

The oddly specific question came about after the newly-minted United States Champion, Sha'Carri Richardson removed her wig during the country's national trials last week.

Richardson, who was sporting a red wig, disposed of it on the track just before she ran as she confirmed her place in a major athletics championship for the first time in her career.