Injured Prudence Sekgodiso qualifies for Olympic 800m final

Prudence Sekgodiso qualified for the women’s 800m final in spectacular fashion on Sunday, tailing world No 1 Keely Hodgkinson around the Stade de France track to finish second in her semifinal.

The final is at 9.47pm on Monday night.

With some casualties in the first two 800m semifinals of the evening, most notably Jemma Reekie of Great Britain, Sekgodiso ran a calm measured race to get into the final.

It was a great turn-around from the world championships in Budapest last year when Sekgodiso crashed out down the semifinals after falling early in the second lap.

Sekgodiso, who had blood on her right shin after getting spiked during the race, got herself into the front bunch and was fourth after the first 400m. When Hodgkinson pushed ahead the 22-year-old South African followed her, and by the time she hit the home straight she had a healthy lead on the nearest rivals behind her.

The first two in each heat qualified, along with the next two fastest losers.

Hodgkinson won in 1min 56.86sec, ahead of Sekgodiso in 1:57.57, the third-quickest time of the evening.

Ethiopian Tsige Duguma won the second heat in 1:57.47 while Kenya’s Mary Moraa, the world champion, finished first in the opening heat in 1:57.86.

“From the warm-up everything was emotional. My coach [Samuel Sepeng] didn’t know what to say to me. I was like ‘girl, just go for it and stick to our plan’.

“And here I am, I qualified with a big Q,” she said, referring to the letter used for placed qualifiers as opposed to the lower-case “q” for timed qualifiers.

“Guys, come on, that’s huge.”

Sekgodiso said she had learnt from the mistake she had made in the heats.

“But [this time] I stuck to my coach’s plan, just to follow Keely, and that’s what I did … I really want to go to my coach right now and ja, cry with him.”

Sekgodiso was upbeat for the final, her first at a major competition.

“I can’t wait for tomorrow’s final. I’m just going to go rest, you know, try to sleep.”