SOUTH Africa have a star in the making, and with a lot of hope and expectation on her shoulders, Prudence Sekgodiso has accepted the challenge and will be racing for a place in the final of the women’s 800 metres at the Paris Olympic Games today.
A comfortable second place in an impressive time of one minute 59.84 seconds was enough for the 22-year-old to advance to the semi-finals – South Africa’s first appearance in the penultimate round since Caster Semenya went on to win the second of her two Olympic gold medals at Rio 2016.
For large parts of the race on Friday night, Sekgodiso showed a lot of control and composure. She understood the task at hand and managed to deliver the result that was needed.
Her experience in running the 1500m event could also come in handy as competition for places in the final hots up.
The African Championships bronze medallist couldn’t hide her excitement after her heat.
“The moment I stepped onto the track, the crowd was just amazing. That’s when the nerves came in. I just said, ‘you know what, I got this. I’m just going to stay according to my plan’, and that’s what I did.”
Sekgodiso’s time of 1:59.84 was well off her personal best of 1:57.26 set at the Diamond League meeting in Morocco in May, as she and the rest of the field kept something in reserve for the semi-finals and possible final.
Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson (1:54.61) and Jemma Reekie (1:55.61) have run the fastest times this year, but Hodgkinson could only manage 1:59.31 in the fourth heat, while Reekie was in cruise control and qualified with a time of 2:00.00 in heat one.
Heat five produced the fastest times, Ethiopia’s 2022 African Games champion Tsige Duguma Gemechu running the fastest time of 1:57.90 and Kenya’s 24-year-old Mary Moraa clocking 1:57.95.
The top three athletes in each heat qualified automatically for the semi-finals, while the rest advanced to a repechage round for another crack at the semis.
There were multiple athletes who ran faster than the South African.
France’s Anais Bourgoin, for example, has a personal best of 1:58.47 and was one of the fastest in the heats, but due to the competitive nature of her heat, she failed to qualify automatically. She later qualified through the repechage in 1:59.52.
Australia’s Abbey Caldwell also missed out on qualification with a season’s best of 1:58.49, although her slower time of 2:00.07 in the repechage saw her through.