The 22-year-old South African hurdler, Marione Fourie, is into the semi-finals of women’s 100m hurdles at the Olympic Games in Paris.

On Thursday Fourie had to run in the repechage round after failing to earn automatic qualification during the Heats on Wednesday. She finished fourth in Heat 4 and missed out on automatic qualification by just 0.10 seconds.

On Thursday morning, she ran a time of 12.79 seconds to better her previous attempt and in doing so she also won the team. This time was good enough to go down as the fastest time in the repêchage heats.

The young sprinter said she was delighted to get another crack at advance, but she knows that she is capable to go even faster.

“It’s better to have another chance than just being knocked out after the first round, so the repechage is very good for that, ” said Fourie, who is at her first Olympics. “I don’t want to talk about times, but I know what I can do and I know what I’ve done in training. So, let’s just see what happens after that.”

Speaking about the Olympic experience thus far, Fourie, said it has been somewhat overwhelming, but she is enjoying the atmosphere associated with the pinnacle of world sport.

“It’s just been amazing with it being my first Olympics. The excitement is just overwhelming and the atmosphere is just too big actually, but it’s very nice and very exciting.”

The semifinals of the 100m hurdles for women will be run on Friday at 12:05.

OFM Sport/Morgan Piek mvh