JOHANNESBURG – Rio Olympian Dominique Scott-Efurd was ecstatic after improving her own SA record by 11 seconds in the women’s 3000m indoor race over the weekend.
Scott-Efurd in the last two weeks had to deal with the setback of not being included in the SA team to compete at the Commonwealth Games in Australia in April. Scott-Efurd on Saturday smashed her own SA record for the 3000m indoor event at the NYRR Millrose Games in New York when she ran 8 minutes 41.18 seconds
Scott said on social media after her third place: “Hard Work Makes The Dream Work – Even though I missed the W [win] by 0.08 seconds it was a very special evening to see the hard work pay off! Never let the words of others stop you from believing in yourself! Pumped to run 8:41min > a South African National Record & World Qualifying Time!”
Competing at the Millrose Games at the Armory venue in New York, a fast-finishing Scott-Efurd was just pipped for silver by world 3000m steeplechase Emma Coburn of the United States in a race that featured 11 finishers.
The race was won by Jamaican Aisha Praught-Leer in 8 minutes 41.10 seconds and just 0.50 seconds covered the first four places.
Coburn clocked 8:41.16 and Scott was 0.02 slower with even the photo-finish battling to separate silver and bronze. Scott put in the most impressive final lap of the tight 200m track, blitzing to a 31.3 finishing effort.
Adidas athlete Scott, who ran the 10,000m for SA at the last Olympics and set a PB, was way inside the World Indoor Championships qualifying standard of 8:50.00.
She also smashed her own indoor best by 11 seconds and she was even 0.15sec quicker than her outdoor best.
This latest effort by the University of Arkansas product puts her sixth in the world over the 3000m indoor distance for the year with Kenya’s Hellen Obiri quickest with an 8:38.81 in Ostrava, Czech Republic in January.
Amazing how @domscottrunSA closed such a big gap, very hard to come from 4th on an indoor track which is very tight & usually about 200m/lap. pic.twitter.com/fYGrEvRVjb
— eye in the sky (@alecriddle) February 4, 2018