Marioné Fourie closed out SA’s world championship campaign with a rare personal best( PB) on Sunday as the nation left Eugene, Oregon in the US without a single medal.
The 20- year–old clocked12.93 sec to equal her PB and finish fifth in her 100m hurdles semifinal, several hours after Wayne Snyman, 37, closed off his career with a continental record in the inaugural men’s 35 km race walk, finishing 20th in 2 hr 31 min 15sec.
The duo doubled the number of SA’s PBs in the 10- day competition after Zeney van der Walt’s54.81 ranked her 16th in the women’s 400m hurdles and Melikhaya Frans’s 20924 earned him 18th in the men’s marathon.
For a team that finished third on the medals table at the 2017 showpiece with six gongs, including three gold, it seems like a rather long fall.
A total of 45 countries got onto the medal table in Eugene, but on the placing table, which measures performances by all top eight finishers, SA ended 33rd overall, thanks to the fifth places from Akani Simbine in the men’s 100m and Wayde van Niekerk in the men’s 400m, the sixth position by the men’s 4x100m relay side and Luxolo Adams’s eighth in the 200m.
Only the sprinters contributed this time.
SA also missed the podium at the last showpiece in Doha in 2019, ending 20th on the placing table with two long jumpers and a marathon runner also making the top eight alongside Simbine and the 4x100m team.
