Last night at the Northwest-Pukke International Meeting in Sasolburg Rikenette Steenkamp won the 100m-hurdles in a time of 13.24s. It was her first hurdles race of the season.

Steenkamp admits that she is not yet in the shape she would like to be, but as she has not yet raced over 100 hurdles during training, she is satisfied for now. 

“The important thing was that I felt good during the race. I know I am capable of running fast times. I just need to work on a few small things. One is to stay in the zone during the race. I was not in it tonight (last night) because I was overthinking during the race. I could even hear what Altus Schreuder the meeting announcer was saying during our race which means I was not as focused as I should have been,” said Steenkamp who last year became only the second South African athlete to dip under 13 seconds in the 100m-hurdles.

Her next race will be at the USSA Championships at the end of April which is also in Sasolburg. Steenkamp has already been invited to compete in Prague later this season.

Last year Steenkamp competed in five international races winning four and finishing second once. She twice clocked times faster than 13 seconds. In Ostrava, her time was 12.99s  

During a meeting in Switzerland she ran 12.92s which were 0.02s quicker than the record set by Corien Botha in 1998. Unfortunately the wind from behind was measured at 2.01m/s which mean it was too strong by 0.01m/s for Steenkamp’s time to be official. 

Hennie Kriel who coaches Steenkamp is of the opinion that it is only a matter of time before she set a new South African record. Earlier this season she ran 11.51s in the 100m which according to Kriel roughly equates to a time of 13 seconds or faster in the 100m-hurdles.