Steenkamp blazes to sub-13 again
SOUTH AFRICAN 100m hurdles record-holder Rikenette Steenkamp and sprinter Emile Erasmus flew the South African flag proudly, winning their respective events at the Copenhagen Athletics Games on Tuesday evening.
Steenkamp dipped below 13 seconds for the fourth time this season to win the short sprint hurdles event in a time of 12.99 seconds.
She was followed by Germany’s Franziska Hofmann in second place in 13.14 and Klaudia Siciarz of Poland in third place in 13.27.
Steenkamp set a new South African 100m hurdles record at the Josef Odložil Memorial in Prague at the beginning of the month.
She shaved 0.03 of a second off the previous mark Corien Botha set in 1998 with a time of 12.91 seconds.
Erasmus, who was a member of the 4x100m relay quartet that won silver at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, posted the second-fastest time of his career by racing to victory in the 100m final in 10.11sec.
He beat former national record-holder Simon Magakwe to the line, with the seven-time South African champion crossing in 10.18.
nior athlete Thembo Monareng finished in fifth place in a time of 10.56.
Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Wenda Nel stepped onto the podium in Copenhagen, finishing third in the 400m hurdles in a time of 56.95.
Denmark’s Sara Slott Petersen won the race in a time of 55.48, with Yanique Haye of Jamaica bagging silver in 56.71.
Le Roux Hamman finished second in the men’s 400m hurdles in a time of 50.68. He finished behind Estonia’s Jaak–Heinrich Jagor, who clocked 50.47.