Prudence Sekgodiso and Marioné Fourie both produced promising performances to boost their confidence levels ahead of jetting off to the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China next week.
Competing at the first ASA Grand Prix meet of the season at the Pilditch Stadium in Pretoria, Fourie blazed to the fastest season-opener of her career, winning the 100m hurdles in a speedy time of 12.77 seconds.
“12.7 to begin with for the 100m hurdles and a world lead, I’m very excited,” said an elated Marioné afterwards.
“This gives me a lot of confidence because we didn’t know where I was standing in training so having this fastest season’s opener shows that we are ready for next week.”
Prudence looked to have plenty in the tank as she cruised to victory in the 800m. The Olympic finalist slotted in behind training partner Oratile Nowe of Botswana for much of the race before taking the lead on the back straight in the final lap, eventually reaching the finish in a time of 1:59.01. Oratile was second in a new national record for Botswana of 1:59.46.
“The girls were slowing down so I had no choice but to pass them… I’m glad that I maintained that sub-two minutes. It shows that there’s something big coming looking towards the World Championships coming up next week,” said Prudence afterwards.
“I’m actually shocked because for the past two weeks I’ve been training for the 1500. I’ve been doing long stuff at training yet I ran sub-two minutes. I don’t know how I did it but thanks to God, I just have the natural speed in me.”
Later in the evening, it was a teenage sprint sensation who stole the show when he defeated Kenya’s African record holder Ferdinand Omanyala in the men’s 100m.
Karabo Letebele stormed home in a time of 10.19 seconds – the fastest 100m time by a junior athlete in the world this year – to take the win. Emile Erasmus was second by a few thousandths of a second with Ferdinand relegated to third place in 10.22.
“I didn’t expect to beat him [Ferdinand]. I thought he was going to run a 9.-something so I just told myself to execute my own race, go through my phases and I’ll be fine,” said the 18-year-old from Vanderbijlpark who is planning to take up a scholarship to study business management in the USA later this year.
“This has given me more confidence knowing that I have what it takes, especially in my age group. I’m going against the likes of [Olympic silver medallist] Bayanda [Walaza] so I’m just happy to see that my hard work pays off and I have what it takes to be number one.”
Meanwhile, there were two South African records set on Wednesday. Leandri Holtzhausen was first up in the women’s hammer throw, bettering her own mark set four weeks ago with a distance of 67.95m.
“I definitely think I can get close to 70m,” she said afterwards. “I really feel good, my training has been going really well, so it’s just a matter of time.”
