Wayde Van Niekerk has been a name on the lips of many athletics fans of late after he burst onto the stage at the Rio Olympics last year, smashing Michael Johnson's 400-metre world record while blowing the rest of the field out of the water.

The South African's performance on that memorable night in Brazil was nothing short of immense and the 24-year-old's stardom has been on the rise ever since. 

Van Niekerk in now one of the most famous names in track and field and is set to take over from Usain Bolt as world athletics' global superstar when the Jamaican hangs up his spikes later this year.

Unsurprisingly, Van Niekerk seems hell-bent on breaking every record he can get his hands on and last night he wrote his name in history once again.

The South African was running at the Ostrava Golden Spike in the Czech Republic when he consigned yet another long-standing record to the trash heap.

Van Niekerk was competing in the rarely run 300-metre sprint as he ramps up his preparations for the World Championships that will be held in London in August. The Olympic gold medallist was the pick of the field and it showed as he got off to a flyer and had torn past the rest of the bunch by the time they reached the bend.

Van Niekerk never let up as his unrelenting pace saw him pull away from the hapless pack with terrifying ease, before hurtling over the line in a world record time of 30.81 seconds, beating a 17-year-old Michael Johnson record in the process.

The race gets going at 3:20 in the video below.

In reality, Van Niekerk's only opponent on the night was the clock as he made the rest of the field look well and truly pedestrian.

The world record holder looks to be in absolutely electric form ahead of the London World Championships, where he is expected to run the 400m as well as Usain Bolt's self-professed favourite event, the 200m. What an epic battle that could turn out to be!

What an epic battle that could turn out to be!