Last night (08/06) Wenda Nel again qualified for the World Championships in London when she raced to a third place finish in the 400m-hurdles at the Diamond League in Rome.
Nel’s time of 54.58s is 0.08s faster than the time she clocked on Monday in Prague. Janieve Russell (Jamaica) won in 54.14s while Sara Petersen (Denmark) was second in 54.35s.
The Tuks-athlete impressed with the way she fought herself back into contention over the last two hurdles.
“I really enjoyed myself. What was exciting was the way I just got stronger and stronger towards the end of the race. I know it is not the ideal way to race. Next time I want to be in the mix from the start.”
Nel made it clear that she knows that she still need to run much faster if she wants to have a realistic chance of qualifying for the final at the World Championships. However, she realises that to get obsessed with running fast times will be a mistake. The Tuks-athlete emphasised that it going to be all about marginal gains each time she races from now on.
**Carina Horn (Tuks) will start her international campaign on Sunday when she competes in Hengelo at the Fanny Blankers Koen Games.
It will only be the second time this season that Horn lines up to race. She impressed at the South African Championships in Potchefstroom running 10.13s in the heats and then 10.10s in the semi-final. She wisely decided to skip the final as she felt a slight niggle coming on and she did not want to risk aggravating it.
Although she is currently battling a cold Horn is confident of clocking a good time on Sunday.
“My training has been going well. Apart from ensuring that I am off to a perfect start in the 100 metres we also focussed on the second phase of the sprint which is from 20 to 40 metres. Last year that was where I tended to lose out.
“We purposely decided that I should race less this season. One of the mistakes I made last year was to start off racing indoors that led to missing out on an important training block.”
Dafne Schippers, the Olympic and World Championships medallist from the Netherlands, is possibly going to be the athlete to beat on Sunday. Her best time is 10.81s. Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare is the only athlete to have clocked a sub 11 seconds time in the race. Horn’s current best time is 11.06s.
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