Prudence Sekgodiso after the women's 800m final at the Paris Olympics on Monday night. Picture: Antonin Thuillier/AFP
After settling for eighth place in the women’s 800m final on Monday night, Prudence Sekgodiso admitted she had struggled with the tough racing schedule at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Despite fading down the home straight in the chase for medals, however, Sekgodiso was pleased with her all-round performance on her Olympic debut.
After coasting through the heats and semifinals, she left herself too much to do down the home straight and couldn’t hold on in the closing stages of the final.
The 22-year-old middle-distance specialist completed the race in 1:58.79, with pre-race favourite Keely Hodgkinson of Great Britain winning gold in 1:56.72.
“The plan was to stick with the girls for as long as I could. I know I’m not good in the final 100m, and when I saw the girls coming past me, I thought I must just keep my head up and keep going,” Sekgodiso said.
“I’m so happy I made the final… it means a lot to me.”
Though she avoided the repechage round, which meant she didn’t have to race four days in a row, Sekgodiso said she had battled with the quick turnaround.
“This was a tough tournament, with three races in [four days]. I’m not used to that,” she said.
“Normally I can have a day or two to recover but here I couldn’t. I have to take sleeping pills to sleep and then I wake up late, so the recovery period was difficult for a programme like this.”
Meanwhile, there was no news yet on the seriousness of sprinter Benjamin Richardson’s injury.
Richardson pulled up with an apparent hamstring niggle in the men’s 200m heats and it was unclear if he would compete in the repechage round to be held at 12.30pm on Tuesday.
Later on Tuesday, on day 11 of the Paris Games, four South African athletes were set to line up in semifinals on the track, in search of places in the finals.
Zakithi Nene and Lythe Pillay will turn out in the men’s 400m semis at 7.35pm, while Zeney Geldenhuys and Rogail Joseph are in the 400m hurdles semis at 8.05pm.
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