CAPE TOWN – She was first left out of the South African team for the IAAF World Championships.
Then Rikenette Steenkamp, the premier 100m hurdler in the country, received a lifeline when she was invited to the London competition by the IAAF.
But in an unfortunate chain of events, Steenkamp has been ruled out with a hamstring injury, and she announced on her Instagram account on Saturday that she won’t make it to the world championships.
It is a heartbreaking situation for Tuks star Steenkamp, who finally broke through the sub-13-second barrier when she ran 12.99 seconds in Ostrava, Czech Republic late last month.
Steenkamp became the first South African woman to produce a sub-13 time since national record holder Corien Botha, whose SA mark is 12.94.
“This is somewhat of a bitter sweet post from my side. I recently received the wonderful news that I am included in the national team to participate at the World Championship in London next week. What an honor. I am currently in good shape, but unfortunately I suffered an injury in training on Monday,” she said in her Instagram post.
A post shared by Rikenette Steenkamp (@rikenette100mh) on Jul 29, 2017 at 5:36am PDT
“I am thankful that it is a non-severe hamstring condition. Full recovery is an important goal for me, and therefore I had to withdraw from the team. This 2017 was and is a miracle year for me, and I can only thank God for every golden moment.
“I believe that success in life is not about an event, but truly a way of living. I will not fight what happened, and I understand that everything happening to me is happening for me. I will give my body the rest it needs. I will recover with grace, wisdom and patience.
“I will support team-SA from this side!”
American world record holder Kendra Harrison leads the 2017 list in the 100m hurdles with an astonishing 12.28 – which isn’t far off her overall world mark of 12.20 set last year.
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