Prudence Sekgodiso gets spiked but cruises into Olympic 800m final
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 learned 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 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 going to go rest, try to sleep.”
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