Sekgodiso all set to follow in Semenya’s spike-marks
DOES South Africa have a new 800m star to cheer for on the world’s athletics tracks?
After the discrimination experienced by two-time Olympic champion Caster Semenya, youngster Prudence Sekgodiso is set to take over her mantle in the twolap event.
The 20-year-old Gauteng North athlete produced a stunning performance to beat Ugandan world champion Halimah Nakaayi, 27, at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi on Saturday to announce her arrival as a serious contender on the international circuit.
Sekgodiso, who won the SA
800 and 1 500m double in Cape
Town recently in times of two minutes 03.31 seconds and 4:16.38 respectively, outlasted Nakaayi and the rest of the field at the World Athletics Continental Tour meeting in Kenya to set a new 800m personal best of 1:58.41.
Kenyan Mary Moraa was second in 1:59.87, with Nakaayi fifth (2:00.93).
It was an incredible feat by Sekgodiso, whose time also eclipsed the qualifying standard of 1:59.50 for the World Championships in July.
Sekgodiso’s effort was the secondfastest by a South African woman, behind Semenya’s 1:54.25, and the second-fastest in 2022, with American Allie Wilson running 1:58.18 in California on Friday.
The 1:58.41 time would have placed Sekgodiso 20th on the 2021 list, so it proves she is now a worldclass competitor who will only get faster with further exposure.
Sekgodiso was not the only SA athlete to fly the flag in Nairobi, with Miranda Coetzee streaking to victory in the 400m in a new PB of 51.50sec, while sprinter Shirley Nekhubui was seventh in the 200m in 23.40 seconds.
On the men’s side, former SA record holder Henricho Bruintjies continued his comeback after a few seasons of injury issues with a commendable time of 10.13sec to finish fourth in the 100m race.
Bruintjies was always up against it as the likes of African record holder Ferdinand Omanyala and Americans Fred Kerley, Isiah Young, Kenneth Bednarek and Michael Rodgers were in the field, and it was Omanyala who won in a blistering 9.85sec, followed by Kerley in 9.92 and
Young in 10.13.
Tshepo Tshite just missed a world championships 800m qualifying time when he was third in 1:45.51.
In the javelin throw, Johan Grobler also grabbed bronze with a 79.11m throw.