Wayde van Niekerk's world record run at the Rio Olympics yesterday will make him a hot commodity for corporate companies to pitch their wares, according to a brand expert.

Jarred Boyle, a communications brand strategy and celebrity publicist, said the 24-year-old sprinter needs to maximise his brand as much as possible. "Now that he has achieved something big, he can go to any company to be affiliated with their brands," said Boyle, who looks after the interests of 2015 Miss SA Liesl Laurie and TV personality Minnie Dlamini.

Boyle believes that Van Niekerk can go as far as proposing a book deal on "How I did it" to advance his brand. "He should be surrounded by the right people already to strategise on their long-term plans, such as how long Wayde will still compete at the highest level."

Van Niekerk is managed by In-Site Athlete Management, an SA-based company that once represented the business interests of the now disgraced Oscar Pistorius, whose annual purse was estimated at R20million per annum. When Van Niekerk burst on the global scene at last year's world athletics championships where he became the first South African to win the country a gold medal in the 400m, his only sponsor was Adidas.

That soon changed after his historic performance in Beijing as he has had a busy time off the track signing endorsement deals.

Van Niekerk so far has financial services company Visa and German sports apparel manufacturer Adidas as his global partners, along with SA-based firms such as Defy (appliance maker) and T-Systems (telecoms company) as well as watch-maker Richard Mille that sponsors tennis star Rafa Nadal.

T-Systems said the brand aligned with Van Niekerk because "he is disrupting the status quo in the field of athletics with his achievements". They partnered in May.

The Defy deal followed a month later, with the company saying "supporting Wayde is only natural for us as he embodies everything that our brand values - heritage, legacy, family, tradition and not forgetting innovative and sleek".

The value of Van Niekerk's sponsorship deals are undisclosed but the Bloemfontein-based sprinter's gold and the 43.03 sec new world record in Rio yesterday could potentially catapult him into the money league to follow Usain Bolt, who is track and field's most marketable athlete.

Bolt earns a staggering $10-million (R134-million) a year from Puma, according to Forbes Magazine. The publication further estimated Bolt's total annual earnings at $33-million based on earnings over the last 12 months from appearances, prize money and sponsors.

Unlike in the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships where medals go with prize money, plus a $100000 bonus for breaking the record, there are no cash rewards at the Olympics, except that each country has their own incentive schemes.

Van Niekerk is guaranteed a R400000 incentive from the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee, which has an 80% and 20% split for an athlete and their coach. But prize money will pale into insignificance with millions of rands in endorsement deals, as well as appearance fees expected to roll in the way of Van Niekerk.