Rising SA middle-distance star Prudence Sekgosido reflects on 2022

The 20-year-old middle-distance runner started her season with a bang by dominating the Grand Prix Series and winning the 800m and 1500m titles at the SA Senior Track and Field Championships in Cape Town in April.

Sekgodiso went on to produce a memorable performance at the Diamond League in Rabat, Morocco, finishing the 800m race in second place in 1:59:23 seconds.

She won a Kenyan invitational meeting in Nairobi, running a personal best of 1:58:41 a few weeks before the Diamond League.

In Nairobi he Limpopo-born athlete also beat world champion Halimah Nakaayi of Uganda to send a message to the rest of the world that she had arrived on the big stage.

“For me, it was a good year. Running for sub-two minutes opened doors for me to go to the Diamond League in Rabat, competing with the biggest names in the world," Sekgodiso tells SABC Sport.

But she failed to live up to expectations at the African Senior Athletics Championships in Mauritius in June, collecting a bronze medal in the 800m finals.

In July, Sekgodiso bowed out of the World Athletics Championships in the semi-finals in Oregon, USA, before things again didn’t go her way at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, where she exited in the 800m heats.

"I didn’t win a gold medal at the African championships, but I am happy with the podium finish. It was difficult running at the World Championships in America, and I will use that experience to learn more," she says.

In the New Year, her focus will turn to the Grand Prix Series in five cities, the national championships where she aims to defend her 800m and 1500m titles, and the big one is the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

Sekgodiso works with award-winning coach Samuel Sepeng at the University of Pretoria, and her training partner is the SA 800m champion Tshepo Tshite. 

“We are training and working on our weakness with the coach in Pretoria as we build up to 2023. Some of the races, were good and some were bad, and so we move on,” the youngster explains, as she further addressed comparisons with renowned former 800m Olympic and World champion Caster Semenya.

“I am Prudence, and I am eager to write my own history and not be compared to a legend. Caster is big and I do not want to be compared to her," she insists. 

"I have not had the opportunity to talk to her and I would grab the opportunity if it came. I want to run my own races and focus on what my coach tells me to do on the track."

Sekgodiso defended her title in the 1.6km Tembisa Mile in October to end her 2022 on a high note.

By Charles Baloyi