Marioné Fourie cruises to best time on SA soil; Wayde says he still has work to do

Marioné Fourie beamed after floating across the McArthur Stadium track in Potchefstroom to her fastest time on home soil.

Her 12.67 sec at the Hezekiel Sepeng Invitational on Wednesday night happens to be a world lead. That will change once her northern hemisphere rivals begin their seasons, but what really impressed was that she looked so effortless gliding over the hurdles.

“It felt like I was in cruise control and I didn’t want to go, so I know that there’s a fast time coming up,” said Fourie, who owns the 12.49 national record.

“I’m very, very happy. I think there’s a lot of things that we corrected in training and everything with the new coach.”

Fourie is working with Dutch coach Laurent Meuwly, who has mentored Netherlands star Nadine Visser as well as Femke Bol.

Her long-time coach died early last year and then her next coach left the country, but the switch to Meuwly is paying dividends.

Fourie, who has a smooth style, has been working on improving other elements of her race. “It’s the small details … speed and endurance … everything is just falling into place.”

Fourie is still based at Tuks, but had camped in Potchefstroom while the Dutch team was here training from November to January.

When training on her own, her fiancé videos her, she said, adding the big day was scheduled for November 26.

Olympic silver medallist Jo-Ané du Plessis won the women’s javelin with a best throw of 57.54m.

She and coach Terseus Liebenberg were happy with that effort, considering she lost a couple of weeks of training after struggling with a lower back niggle.

“It’s not an injury, but that’s the first time in my career that I had enforced rest for two weeks,” she said, adding her rhythm and timing had not been right.

“I’m excited for the season and hopefully we can get back on track now.”

In other action, Bradley Nkoana, a member of the 4x100m team that won the 2024 Olympic silver and 2025 World Relays gold, was quickest over the 100m in 10.13.

Veteran Wayde van Niekerk won the second heat in 10.17, but admitted he had much to work on to improve his race.

Luvo Manyonga, another 2017 world champion in action on the night, won the men’s long jump with a leap of 7.98.

Prudence Sekgodiso, the 2025 world indoor champion, won the women’s 800m in 2min 00.50sec.