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Johannesburg - Audi Sport Ambassador and South African Olympic champion, Wayde van Niekerk, arrived back in South Africa on Wednesday (September 7).
The world-record holder was met with a hero's welcome at OR Tambo International Airport.
Upon arrival, Audi South Africa took the opportunity to surprise Van Niekerk and presented him with an R8 super car.
Hero returns
He was announced as an Audi Sport Ambassador prior to the Rio Olympic Games in July, with the Audi RS3 Sportback as his official vehicle.
However, in lieu of his outstanding and world-record breaking performance at the Rio Olympic Games, it was decided that the R8 would better match his blistering performance.
History making, record breaking run
Van Niekerk is the first individual in the history of the Olympic games to break the 10-second mark for 100 metres, 20sec for 200m and 43sec for 400m.
WATCH: Audi SA surprise Wayde van Niekerk with 449kW supercar
At the 2016 Rio Olympic Games Van Niekerk produced the performance of his career where he smashed the 17-year-old world record set by Michael Johnson in 1999 with an outstanding performance in the 400m sprint with a time of 43.03 seconds.
Performance-matching car
The all new Audi R8 V10 Plus which Wayde will be driving, is the most powerful and fastest production Audi ever built. The V10 mid-engine sports car is capable of sprinting from 0-100km/h in just 3.2sec. The R8 is priced from R2.7-million, with Wayde's model costing R3.0-million.
Gallery: Wayde van Niekerk receives brand new Audi R8
Paul Sansom, head of Audi SA, said: “[We are] extremely proud to represent Wayde as an official Audi Sport Ambassador. We thought there was no better way to welcome him home than to surprise him with the all new Audi R8 as his new vehicle following his stellar performance at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games."
