Another sub 10 finish as Wayde proves why he’s the best

DROPPING his second sub10 second time of his career, Wayde van Niekerk proved he is the sprint king apparent in Velenje, Slovenia.

Van Niekerk raced to a personal best time of 9.94 seconds to showcase his phenomenal range over all sprint distances.

It was a red-letter day for the South African sprinters as they claimed a 1-2-3 finish.

Finishing behind Van Niekerk, Emile Erasmus clocked 10.12 with Henricho Bruintjies bagging bronze in 10.14.

Van Niekerk improved his personal best which he set in March 2016 by 0.04 to confirm his status as one of the world’s greatest sprinters of all time.

He has demonstrated incredible versatility in the 100, 200, and 400m and is the only man to have gone sub-10, -20, and -44 times over all three distances respectively.

Van Niekerk has been ripping up the track in the 200m this season boasting a worldleading and South African record time of 19.84 seconds he posted just over a week ago in Kingston, Jamaica.

He has been flying below the radar in his specialist onelap sprint this season and will get into the blocks in the 300m at the Ostrava Golden Spike meeting at the end of the month before lining up in his first international 400m race of the season Lausanne in July.

Top 100m hurdles Rikenette Steenkamp came painstakingly closer to breaching 13 seconds winning her race in a time of 13.03 seconds.

Steenkamp was 0.01 off the personal best she posted in Potchefstroom to claim the national title. She fell just short of posting the B-qualifying standard 12.98 seconds but would have to break the national record to meet the B-standard of 13.77.

Double 100-200m national champion Alyssa Conley was disqualified in her first international half-lap race of the season. Tamzin Thomas won her race in a time of 23.82. Long jumper Lynique Prinsloo finished fourth with a best of 6.25m