"I still don't know if I was running that race!"
South Africa's world-record breaking 400m Olympic champion, whose Twitter handle is @waydedreamer, felt like he was in the ultimate dream at a crazy Stadio Olimpico, deep into Saturday night!
Amidst the clamour over his world record, Van Niekerk said watching the Liverpool match against Arsenal earlier in the day had put him in the perfect mindset for his record breaking feats.
"I've got the world record now, and I've got Liverpool!," he beamed, surrounded by the world's media, looking back on his 43.03 run, which broke Michael Johnson's long-standing mark.
43.03! Congratulations to massive Red @WaydeDreamer on Olympic #Gold& your new world record at #Rio2016! 👏 pic.twitter.com/Y81ic1YaS6
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) August 15, 2016
"My brother is an Arsenal fan, too, so it was just a great night!"
Van Niekerk, deeply religious, prayed before the start, and then again sank to his knees, before embracing his family.
"My whole family is here, and for them to see this is just amazing."
Van Niekerk's feats came just before what many had assumed to be the main event, the men's 100m final, featuring Usain Bolt.
Bolt won, as expected, but recognised what had gone on before.
"He came over and said ' I told you that you could do it! I told you that you could it!," Van Niekerk beamed.
"He's one of the people I look up to, as well as Michael Johnson", he added.
As he spoke, athletes going past him stopped to take a selfie, interrupting a frenetic media scrum.
There, in the midst of it all, Liverpool's fastest fan stood, beaming like a child. And he took it all in his considerable stride.
Independent Media