Last night in Ostrava Rikenette Steenkamp has done what she has been threatening to do the whole season and that was to dip under 13 seconds in the 100m-hurdles. She is only the second South African athlete to do so.
Pamela Dutkiewicz (Germany) won in a time of 12.72s with Steenkamp second in 12.99s and Hanna Plotisyna (Ukraine) third in 13.02s. The Tuks/HPC-athlete impressed with her never say die attitude taking the “fight” to her rivals right up to the line.
Steenkamp’s performance is definitely one of the most remarkable comebacks this season as she had to literally relearn how to walk after undergoing an operation to have an extra bone in her ankle removed. As part of the rehabilitation process, Steenkamp was afterwards confined to bed to rest for six weeks. Swimming was the first proper exercise she was allowed to do. Only in September last year was she allowed doing athletics again.
Hennie Kriel (head coach at Tuks) is of the opinion that if Steenkamp had a slightly better start she could have broken Corien Botha’s South African record of 12.94s set in 1998.
He emphasised how important a small margin of error is for athletes competing in sprint events.
“Rikenette’s reaction time was 0.218s if it had been 0.160s she would have set a new national record.”
However, Steenkamp was not last night going to worry about what could have been she was just elated to at long last break through the 13-second barrier.
“To run a sub 13-second race is definitely an amazing experience. I know I have only done so by 0.01s but it is the confidence booster I needed.”
Steenkamp ascribed her breakthrough race to the fact that it was the first time this season that she has to compete against a quality field. Five of the athletes in the starting line-up boasted with sub 13 second times.
“I am a firm believer that the only way you can improve is to race against better athletes. I certainly ran of their energy tonight (Wednesday) and it helped me to set a new personal best time,” said Steenkamp whose previous best in the 100m-hurdles was 13.02s.
Steenkamp is realistic about her performance admitting that she has to improve by quite a few hundredths of a second before she is really going to be competitive in the 100m-hurdles.
“I cannot afford to be oblivious to the times the international athletes are running. On average it is 12.40s to 12.50s but I know that I can still improve a lot. Three years ago I wrote on a piece of paper a time of 13.20s which was what I was striving for. Now my best time is 12.99s. It is only the first year that I am being coached by Hennie. His speed programme is definitely working for me. However, I definitely need to work on my hurdling technique as it is not as efficient as it could be.”
The lack of real role models in South African women’s sport is something that she is passionate about. Steenkamp readily admits that when she was still in school she missed having someone who she could look up or even approach to speak to about her insecurities as a young female athlete. For this reason, she was not just excited about her own performance but also that of Alyssa Conley who finished second in the 200m last night running 23.03s.
“It is nice to see that we as South African female athletes are able to hold our own in the international arena.”
The Tuks/HPC-athlete’s next race is on Sunday in Le Chaux, France.
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