Van Niekerk who won silver in Glasgow eight years ago, misses his second consecutive Games after an injury-hit season.

He withdrew from the South African National Championships and pulled up during a race in Trieste at the end of May.

He only returned to the track last weekend at the Stars and Stripes meeting in Atlanta recording a time of  44.58sec, but missed out on selection because he had not registered a time during the designated qualification period. 

The athletics squad does include Gold Coast 2018 men’s 100m champion Akane Simbine, who won the Stockholm Grand Prix in 10.02 a week ago.

Silver medallist Henrico Bruintjies is also selected and both are expected to compete in the 4x100m relay. 

The entire South African team includes more women than men for the first time.

Dane van Niekerk leads the cricket team in the inaugural Commonwealth Games women’s T20 cricket, where they will be hoping to emulate the men’s team led by Shaun Pollock, which won the only previous cricket tournament at the Games.

They begin a one day series against England at Northampton next week after a rain-affected draw in a one-off Test match at Taunton.

South Africa will also be represented in the other team sports of netball, rugby sevens and hockey.

In the pool, Olympic and Commonwealth Games 200m breaststroke gold medallist Tatjana Schoenmaker headlines the women’s squad and London 2012 200m butterfly champion Chad Le Clos has also been selected.

He is set to compete in his fourth Commonwealth Games and has won seven gold medals to date. 

They join a team of 251, which represents an increase in size from the 194 South Africans who travelled to Gold Coast four years ago.

South African Olympic Committee vice-president and hockey official Lwandile Simelane has been named as Chef de Mission for the team.

In Gold Coast, South Africa won 18 gold, 11 silver, and 13 bronze medals.