Two months after breaking her shoulder, Marione Fourie will be back in action on Saturday when she lines up at the 12th leg of the Diamond League series in Silesia, Poland.
Fourie enjoyed a spectacular first half to the year, with the 100m hurdles specialist achieving her first podium finish at a Diamond League event in Xiamen in April and setting a season’s best 12.60 at the FBK Games in Hengelo in June.
After crossing the line just 0.11 outside her own national record in Hengelo, however, Fourie tumbled to the track and fractured her shoulder in two places.
She was taken to hospital in Nijmegen where she underwent surgery before returning home.
Fortunately, Fourie has since recovered, and she will start her build-up to next month’s World Athletics Championships when she lines up against a strong field in Poland.
She faces the likes of world record holder Tobi Amusan (Nigeria), world champion Danielle Williams (Jamaica) and Olympic champion Masai Russell (United States).
The women’s 100m hurdles event in Silesia will consist of heats (to be held on the pre-programme) and a final.
Simbine lines up in 100m race
Sprinter Akani Simbine will be the only other South African athlete competing at the top-flight meeting in Poland.
Simbine, who leads the Diamond League standings in the men’s 100m sprint and has already qualified for the series final, is also up against a powerful line-up in the short sprint.
He will enter the blocks alongside the likes of world and Olympic champion Noah Lyles and 60m indoor world record holder Christian Coleman (both from the United States) as well as Jamaican athlete Kishane Thompson, the fastest man in the world this year after clocking 9.75 in Kingston in June.
Silesia Diamond League, Saturday 16 August (SA times)
3.20pm – 100m hurdles women, heats (Marione Fourie)
4.35pm – 100m hurdles women, final (Fourie)
4.58pm – 100m men, final (Akani Simbine)
* Featured image of Marione Fourie by Cecilia van Bers
