Victorious Prudence targets Caster's SA records, starting with the 1,500m

Rising middle-distance star Prudence Sekgodiso won the 800m at the Athletics South Africa grand prix meet in Pretoria on Monday and then said she was looking to break Caster Semenya’s two main national records.

Sekgodiso had prepared to run the 3,000m at the Tuks track, but with only one other entrant the race was canned and she opted to make a late entry into her favourite two-lap event, dipping under two minutes once again.

She surged to the front on the back straight and was well ahead of her nearest rival when she crossed the line in 1min 59.93sec, showing her pleasure as she saluted her own effort.

But Sekgodiso was even more animated with joy after watching training partner Kethobogile Haingura of Botswana win the men’s race in the fastest time on South African soil.

Haingura stopped the clocked on 1:43.94, a comfortable Olympic qualifier and the only sub 1:44 on these shores. The previous quickest was 1:44.57 set in Cape Town by Marius van Heerden in 1996.

Sekgodiso rushed to congratulate and tackled him with an embrace that seemed to knock him to the track exhausted.

The 22-year-old, who booked her spot in the team for the Paris Olympics after clocking 1:58.06 on the same track a couple of weeks ago, said she would run the 1,500m and 5,000m double at the national championships in Pietermaritzburg next month.

She is keen to try break Semenya’s 3:59.92 national mark she said in Doha in 2018.

“The plan is to run the 1,500m [when I get overseas later in the season],” said Sekgodiso. “I want that SA record ... I want it. I’m going to speak to my agent and then try to squeeze in the 1,500m.

“I’m not scared of anything. I can race with this speed, I don’t care. I’ll just follow them [the front-runners] and run that time.”

But Semenya’s 800m mark of 1:54.25 would take a while, she added. “That’s my long-term goal. I feel like if I say ‘I’m going to break it now’ I’m going to put pressure on [myself]. So that’s a long-term goal, I’m still young anyway,” she added.

The star of the show, Letsile Tebogo of Botswana, easily won the 400m in 44.29, more than a second in front of his compatriot, Anthony Pesela, in 45.93.

Tebogo, who medalled in both the 100m and 200m at last year’s world championships, had only run the 400m once before as a senior, but his time on Monday qualified him for the Olympics.

After lying on the floor recovering from his effort, he said it would be his last for the foreseeable future. “I think it will be my last 400m race until further notice,” he said, adding they wanted to ensure he wouldn’t get a repeat of the injury that hampered him at the end of last season. 

He also said he didn’t want to over-exert his body with the Games on the horizon.

There had been speculation that he might become the fourth member of the sub-10 100m, sub-20 200m and sub-44 400m club, started by Wayde van Niekerk, but it wasn’t to be.

“I’m pretty happy even though this wasn’t the plan that we wanted to execute. We wanted to see if the body will get tired on the last 100m, which it did. I think we’ll go back to the drawing board and analyse the video.”

Cheswill Johnson was the only competitor to break eight metres in the men’s long jump, winning with a leap of 8.07m.

Saudi Arabia won the men’s 4x100m relay in 39.18sec, ahead of Eswatini and Botswana. Amazingly, South Africa were unable to field a team because of injuries or the age-group championships which start on Thursday.

The only available runner was Clarence Munyai, who ended fourth in the men’s 200m in 20.91.