Prudence Sekgodiso bids to become the first South African woman to land a medal at a world indoor championships today, the country’s busiest day of the short-track competition in Nanjing, China.
Long-jumper Cheswill Johnson and shot-putter Chris van Niekerk will compete in straight finals starting around 1.40pm, although neither seems as likely to join sprint king Akani Simbine on the podium as Sekgodiso. She’s seeded second in the women’s 800m final, boasting the second-fastest personal best in the field behind Ethiopia’s defending champion Tsige Duguma, also a silver medallist at last year’s Olympics.
The 23-year-old South African looked comfortable in her 800m semifinal yesterday morning as she breezed around the four 200m laps to finish second in 2min 01.21sec and qualify automatically as one of the three fastest finishers.
There were two surges in the race and Sekgodiso, a finalist at the Paris Olympics last year, easily responded both times to stay close to the front.
Audrey Werro of Switzerland — the youngest competitor at 20 and the runner-up at the 2022 under-20 world championships — won in 2:01.11, with European indoor champion Anna Wielgosz of Poland third in 2:01.36.
Duguma won the other semifinal in 2:03.85, ahead of compatriot Nigist Getachew (2:04.01) and Silva Patricia of Portugal (2:04.20).
The final is scheduled for 2.54pm (SuperSport channel 208).
Of the six finalists, Sekgodiso and Duguma are the only ones to have been under two minutes on the short track, a form of racing the Limpopo product is loving — from the short laps that make the race seem quicker to the vociferous crowds sitting right against the track.
Sekgodiso set her 1:59.88 national record in France early last month and then ran the exact same time in Germany six days later.
Duguma set her 1:58.35 best in the semifinals of the world indoor championships in Glasgow last year before winning the final in 2:01.9.
Like Sekgodiso, veteran Simbine made his indoor debut only this year.
On Friday the 31-year-old produced a late surge in the 60m to claim the first individual global medal of his career and give South Africa its 11th in this format. The last one was won by long-jumper Luvo Manyonga in 2018. Simbine finished third behind Welshman Jeremiah Azu in 6.49 and Australian youngster Lachlan Kennedy in 6.50.
Simbine, who clocked 6.54, posted his 6.53 personal best in the semifinals, still well short of the 6.48 national record set by Morne Nagel in 2002.
While the indoor championship medal is a nice-to-have, this was never Simbine’s chief goal — he is targeting the 100m at the outdoor world championships in Tokyo later this year. The 100m sprint is the race that is embedded in his DNA and has mostly defined his lengthy career where he has achieved consistency, if not silverware.
Simbine made his world championship debut at Moscow 2013, finishing 37th overall in 10.38. At Beijing 2015 Simbine advanced to the semifinals, finishing 11th overall with a 10.02 effort. Then he was fifth at London 2017, fourth at Doha 2019, fifth at Eugene 2022 and was disqualified for a false start at Budapest 2023. He also finished fourth at two Olympics, at Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, and fifth at Rio 2016.
His heroics on the anchor leg of the men’s 4x100m relay in France earned him the respect he has deserved for so long, but reaching an individual 100m podium at a global competition is still the one achievement missing from his impressive CV.
Competing in the 60m at indoors this year was always about improving his start to make him that much faster in the 100m.
This medal is a stepping stone to his real goal.
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