Great start for Namibia’s Golden Girls in Bloemfontein

They both got off to strong starts to take the lead but by the half way stage Mboma powered past her compatriot to split the tape in a new personal best time of 11,15 seconds. It was only her second-ever competitive 100m race, after she had also beaten Masilingi at Athletics Namibia's Swakopmund Grand Prix in January in 11,25 seconds. Masilingi came second in 11,24 seconds, which was just outside her personal best time of 11,20, while Sherley Nekhubvi of South Africa came third in 11,49. IOL meanwhile reports that Jason van Rooyen proved that he can challenge Kyle Blignaut to be South Africa's best shot put athlete.Van Rooyen competed alongside Blignaut at the Tokyo Olympics last year, but it was the latter who advanced to the final and finished in sixth position, while Van Rooyen failed to make the final.But this time around at the Free State Athletics Stadium, it was Van Rooyen who took the honours with a best throw of 20.64 metres, with Blignaut second with a 20.43m effort.Van Rooyen took charge from the opening round as he produced a 20.57m throw, compared to Blignaut's 20.17m, and went on to record 20m-plus in his first five rounds, before a foul on the final attempt.Blignaut also pulled out five throws over 20 metres, but couldn't quite get the better of Van Rooyen in his comeback from a six-week injury layoff.“It was tough today. We didn't expect to do that well. We had a long week and came back from Covid as well, so the body was still flat,” Van Rooyen told the ASA YouTube channel. “But I did a prayer today, God produced miracles today and I'm grateful.”In the men's 100m, 33-year-old two-time Olympian Sibusiso Matsenjwa of eSwatini showed that he can still take on younger athletes as he held off Luxolo Adams to win in 10.50 seconds.It was a competitive 110m hurdles race as well, where African record-holder Antonio Alkana went up against former SA record-holder Ruan de Vries.Most of the field knocked over a few hurdles, but Alkana kept his composure and edged ahead of De Vries from about the halfway mark to clinch victory in 13.78 seconds, with De Vries in second with 13.84.On the women's front, the highlight of the meet was the 100m hurdles race. Youngster Marione Fourie's name is on everybody's lips after she posted a superb time of 12.86 seconds at the Athletics Gauteng North provincial championships last Saturday – although the effort isn't an official one due to a tail-wind of +2.2m/s.The 19-year-old will be chasing Rikenette Steenkamp's South African record of 12.81 this season, and the Tuks athlete was the favourite on Wednesday in the absence of Steenkamp.But Fourie was chased all the way by Taylon Bieldt on Wednesday. In fact, Bieldt led the race up until the last few metres, and it looked like she was going to cause an upset.Fourie, though, did just enough to dip near the line and claim victory in 13.10 seconds, with Bieldt second in 13.15.Selected ResultsMen's Shot Put1 Jason van Rooyen 20.64m2 Kyle Blignaut 20.43m3 DJ Liebenberg 16.69mMen's 110m Hurdles1 Antonio Alkana 13.782 Ruan de Vries 13.843 Rivaldo Roberts 14.21Men's 400m1 Gardeo Isaacs 46.622 Lindukuhle Gora 46.993 Tsebo Matsoso 47.22Men's 800m1 Jabulane Ncamane 1:46.952 Joel Semenya 1:47.513 Edmund du Plessis 1:47.74Men's 100m1 Sibusiso Matsenjwa (eSwatini) 10.502 Luxolo Adams 10.543 Theodor Young 10.56Women's 100m hurdles1 Marione Fourie 13.102 Taylon Bieldt 13.153 Kayla van den Bergh 13.97Women's 400m1 Zeney van der Walt 51.902 Line Kloster (Norway) 52.343 Marlie Viljoen 53.334 Wenda Nel 53.485 Taylon Bieldt 53.92Women's 100m1 Christine Mboma (Namibia) 11.152 Beatrice Masilingi (Namibia) 11.243 Sherley Nekhubvi 11.49

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