Gold fever for SA sprinters in Copenhagen

SOUTH African 100m hurdles record holder Rikenette Steenkamp and sprinter Emile Erasmus flew the flag proudly winning their respective events at the Copenhagen Athletics Games on Tuesday evening.

Steenkamp (pictured) dipped below 13 seconds for the fourth time this season winning the short sprint hurdles event with a time of 12.99 seconds.

She was followed by Germany’s Franziska Hofmann in second place with 13.14 and Klaudia Siciarz of Poland in third place with 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 finishing second in Monday evening’s race 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 racing to victory in 100m final in 10.11.

He beat former national record holder Simon Magakwe to the line with the seven-times South African champion crossing in 10.18. Junior athlete Thembo Monareng finished in fifth place with a time of 10.56. Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Wenda Nel stepped onto the podium in Copenhagen finish third in the 400m hurdles with a time of 56.95. Denmark’s Sara Slott Petersen won the race with 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 with a time of 50.68 finishing behind Estonia’s Jaak–Heinrich Jagor clocking 50.47.