Tebogo Mamathu becomes SA's second-fastest sprinter

01 July 2019 - 13:48 By David Isaacson
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Tebogo Mamathu competes in the women's 100m heat race during the Riunione Italiana di Velocità athletic meeting in Rieti, Italy.
Tebogo Mamathu competes in the women's 100m heat race during the Riunione Italiana di Velocità athletic meeting in Rieti, Italy.
Image: Marco Mantovani 781634/51B CrRM/Getty Images

Tebogo Mamathu shattered her personal best as she clocked 11.04sec over the 100m in Switzerland on Sunday to become the second-fastest SA sprinter of all time.

The SA champion from Tuks edged China’s Yongli Wei on the line in the women’s A final at La Chaux-de-Fonds to take the victory‚ although they were both credited with 11.04. 

Carina Horn‚ who went 10.98 last year‚ had been the only other woman to have gone under Evette de Klerk’s long-standing 11.06 SA record from 1990. 

Mamathu‚ whose previous best was 11.37 in Pretoria last year‚ is now only the second SA woman to secure a world championship qualifying standard for the Doha showpiece later this year.

Until Sunday Caster Semenya had been the only woman to have achieved one of Athletics South Africa's qualifying standards. 

The Athletics South Africa (ASA) criteria are tougher than the qualifying standards set by the world governing body‚ the IAAF.

In the women’s 100m‚ the IAAF mark is 11.24‚ compared to the ASA criterion of 11.10.

A further three track-and-field female athletes have made IAAF standards — Horn in the 100m (11.16)‚ Dom Scott in the 10‚000m and Zeney van der Walt in the 400m hurdles. 

Three women have also made IAAF standards in the marathon‚ but none are in contention for Doha — Nolene Conrad is injured while Gerda Steyn and Ann Ashworth effectively disqualified themselves by running the Comrades Marathon. 

ASA has said they wanted fresh legs. 

Of other SA athletes in action‚ Lindsey Hanekom was sixth in the men’s 400m hurdles A final in 50.65‚ Thepelo Phora was fifth in the men’s 400m A final in 46.13 and Thando Roto was sixth in the men’s B 100m final in 10.31.​

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