Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 97, August 2017 | Page 9

IN THE NEWS
South African Athletes Making Headlines – BY REGGIE HUFKIE
Rikenette Breaks 13-second Barrier
Hurdler Rikenette Steenkamp
made a big breakthrough at the
Golden Spike Meeting in Ostrava,
Czech Republic, on 27 June, when
she clocked 12.99 seconds in the
women’s 100m hudles event. She
already holds national titles in the
event across all age groups, and is
getting ever closer to challenging
Corien Botha’s 19-year-old SA
record of 12.94.
Clarence Makes History
While Wayde van Niekerk’s new
world best of 30.81 for 300m at the
Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava on
28 June rightfully received most of the
news coverage, another record was
overlooked by many. Finishing third
in that same race was 19-year-old SA
junior Clarence Munyai, who claimed
a World Best of his own, with his 31.61
making him the first junior to go under
32 seconds in this rarely run distance.
The SA Under-20 track and field
team ended the CAA African Junior
Championships in Tlemcen, Algeria at the beginning of July with a total
of 17 medals, made up of 12 gold, four silver and one bronze. The golds
included sprinter Clarence Munyai storming to a spectacular victory in
the men’s 200m final with a meet record 20.22 time, just weeks after he
set a new Junior World Best for 300m in Ostrava.
Soweto Marathon Sells Out Early
All the Old Mutual
Soweto Marathon
races that are due to
take place on November
5 at Johannesburg’s FNB
Stadium are sold out.
The 10km, 21.1km and
42.2km, as confirmed by
the organisers, reached
full capacity on Wednesday
28 June, almost four
months before race day.
Carina Horn flew to a new South
African women’s 100m best on
7 July at the Sotteville les Rouen
national meeting in France, but
it will unfortunately not count as
a new SA record due to a strong
tailwind. She clocked 11.05, which
is 0.05 seconds inside the current
Para-athletes Claim Five World Champs Golds
South Africa wrapped up
their 2017 IPC Athletics
World Championships in
London in late July with
a tally of 15 medals - five
gold, eight silver and
two bronze – to finish
10 th on the medals table.
Two of the gold medal
performances came from
Charl du Toit, claiming
the wins in both the
men’s T37 200m and 400m, while Dyan Buis also claimed two golds, in
the men’s T38 200m and 400m finals. The fifth gold went to Manie Blom
in the men’s F12 discus throw.
Mapaseka Takes
Durban Title
Juniors Claim 17 African
Champs Medals
Carina’s Record
Blown Away
SA Record, held jointly by herself and Evette de Klerk, the latter having
first run it back in 1990. The following wind in France was 2.6 metres per
second, which is 0.6m/sec above the legal limit.
Mapaseka Makhanya lead
a field of over 7000 women
home at the Totalsports
Women’s Race in Durban on
16 July, clocking 34:30 after
running much of the race
alone. Pre-race favourite
Lebogang Phalula was
second home. Mapaseka was using the race as a final speed tune-up ahead
of running the marathon at the IAAF World Champs in London in early
August.
Dominique racks up more PBs
Dominique Scott-Efurd has been in a fine
run of form in recent weeks. She began with
a PB 15:20.10 for 5000m in Rome in late
June, then cruised to a PB 32:22 for 10km
on the road, and the fifth-fastest 10km time
by a South African woman, a t the BAA 10k
in Boston on 25 June. She followed that
with a PB 4:08.04 for 1500m in Padua, Italy
on 10 July. Last but not least, she ran a
scintillating 8:41.33 over 3000m in Monaco
in the Diamond League meeting to move up
to third on the all-time SA list.
Caster Betters Own 800m SA Record
Caster Semenya had to
pull out all the stops to
win the women’s 800m
at the Diamond League
meeting in Monaco on 21
July, but it pushed her to a
1:55.27 finish, shaving one
one-hundredth of a second
off her previous mark of
1:55.28, which she ran to win the gold medal at last year’s Rio Olympics. The
time was also the fastest thus far this year in the world.
9