Zeney van der Walt shows her intent with lifetime best 400m

Hurdler Zeney van der Walt blasted a massive personal best as she won the 400m flat in 50.81 sec at the first Athletics SA grand prix meet in Pretoria on Wednesday night.

Her time suddenly ranks her the sixth-fastest SA women in history, but it also was good enough to qualify for the world championships in Budapest in August.

“I’m excited to see what I’m going to do in the hurdles,” said the Commonwealth Games 400m hurdles champion. “The faster the 400m the faster the hurdles.”

At the recent national championships she said she was targeting a personal best this season, but after her performance on Wednesday Van der Walt admitted the national 53.74 400m hurdles mark set by Myrtle Bothma was in her sights.

“That is definitely in mind, but we will take it step by step,” added the former under-20 and under-18 world champion, whose previous best was 51.41.

Her 400m hurdles best to date, set at Birmingham 2022, is 54.47.

Prudence Sekgodiso needed to sprint hard at the death to win the women’s 800m in 2 min 02.41 sec, a time that left her disappointed.

“I’m not happy with the time,” she said afterwards. “My aim was to go sub-two, but there was nobody to push me.”

Sekgodiso ruled the race from the start, and without somebody to chase, she ended up pulling second-placed Oratile Nowe to a 2:02.85 Botswana record.

Marione Fourie took the women’s 100m hurdles in 13.01, missing out on a sub-13 run when she collided with the penultimate hurdle.

“I think I lost focus,” she said afterwards.

In the main event of the evening, Kenyan strong man Ferdinand Omanyala won the 100m in 10.12, ahead of Benjamin Richardson in 10.33.

Abderrahman Samba of Qatar won the men’s 400m in 45.37, ahead of Zakhithi Nene in 45.59.

In some other events, Kenyan Wiseman Were won the men’s 400m hurdles in 49.23 while Taylon Bieldt took the women’s race in 56.55.

Sinesipho Dambile, the national champion last year, took the men’s 200m in 20.43 while Tsoane Sebele of Botswana won the women’s 200m in 23.92.