The former Tuks Sports School pupil, Prudence Sekgodiso, is currently studying at Varsity College in Pretoria and it is in the colours of this institution that she recently made the earlier comparisons between her and the famous Caster Semenya seem justifiable.

Sekgodiso is the reigning 800m and 1500m SA champion while last year she also won the bronze medal in the 800m at the African championship. However, like Semenya, she recently proved her versatility when she took on the much longer 5000m during an Athletics Gauteng North (AGN) league meeting. She won the race in 16:37,00.

“I feel super excited about winning my first 5000m in the time that I did. Thank you to my coaches and manager for helping me to be in really good shape so early in the season,” said Sekgodiso after the race.

In the meantime, she has big plans for 2023. Her goals for this year are to set new national records in the 800m and 1500m, to compete in the World Athletic Championship taking place in Budapest in Hungary in August and to qualify for The Diamond League, an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising of fourteen of the best invitational athletics meetings.

Although she will have to improve by quite a few seconds on her personal bests in both events to achieve her first goal, self-confidence is not lacking in this hard-working athlete. Her times have improved every year over the past seasons and she believes this will also be the case this year.

She believes that the extra stamina she can build up from her participation in longer races such as the 5000m can also be a factor in dramatically improving her times in the middle-distance races.

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