South Africa's Prudence Sekgodiso reacts after competing in the women's 800m final of the athletics event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Stade de France in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on August 5, 2024. (Photo by Antonin THUILLIER / AFP)
Prudence Sekgodiso believes she has learnt valuable lessons from her first appearance in an Olympic 800m final in Paris.
Sekgodiso seemed to be well in the hunt for a medal approaching the last bend, but unfortunately faded away down the home stretch to finish in eighth position in a time of 1:58.79.
Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson, who had pipped Sekgodiso into second place in the semi-finals, won the gold in 1:56.72. The 22-year-old feels that the experience in Paris will set her up well for another medal assault in Los Angeles in four years.
“The race overall was okay … I feel like I wasted so much energy because I’ve been running in lane two the whole time, and that’s my biggest mistake,” said Sekgodiso.
“I know my coach is going to fight with me about it. It’s a lesson I learnt and I’m going to take it and move on.”
The 800m Olympic final was an acutely tactical race with the first half of the race primarily set up for competitors to position themselves for an assault later on.
The breakout happened down the back straight where there was an injection of pace by the frontrunners. Sekgodiso managed to go with the leaders, although she had to exert extra energy by going around the outside. But Sekgodiso admits that the home straight is an Achilles heel and she was forced to summon all her determination to get over the finish line after being passed over the last 50m.
“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,” she said.
“I’m so happy I made the final, c’mon guys, it means a lot to me.”
Sekogodiso also feels that having now experienced the Olympic programme will stand her in good stead in the future as she has struggled to manage her usual routine in Paris.
“This was a tough tournament, with three races in three 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.”
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