Even on her week off, Prudence Sekgodiso watched athletes going through their paces on her home Tuks track and wished she was out there doing laps with them.
Just days earlier, the 23-year-old had become the first South African woman to reach the podium at a world indoor championships, winning gold in the 800m in a 1min 58.40sec national record in Nanjing, China.
“I miss training,” said Sekgodiso, who stands 1.65m tall and weighs around 52kg. “Whenever I’m here, I’m happy because I’m always alone. I don’t have friends around, I only have one friend and she stays in Cape Town. So, most of the time I’m just by myself.”
The Phantani club runner — who hails from Medingen village in the Ga-kgapane district near Tzaneen, not far from the Rain Queen’s palace in Limpopo — spends most of her days in serene solitude, seldom lonely or listless.
“My schedule is crazy. I never get bored during the week because I do my morning jog at 6am and then I go back to my place, I shower then I sleep. At around 9am I wake up, I go to my recovery sessions, and then I come back and it’s 12 noon. I eat, I get ready for training, then I come here. And then later I go home, I shower, I eat, I sleep. That’s my routine every day.”
I was always in my room [in China], I was making sure that after each race I was doing the ice baths, getting a massage immediately after those things. If I do the same thing here, I think going to the world championships, I’ll do some amazing things.
In between she is on her phone, calling friends and family or watching Netflix and YouTube.
Sekgodiso, now looking ahead to the outdoor world championships in Tokyo in September, is buoyed by her recent success, saying her victory — as unexpected as it was for her — had seemed so easy in the end. “[In the final] my body was just smooth. I didn’t feel anything. I think my resting, my recoveries helped a lot.
“I was always in my room, I was making sure that after each race I was doing the ice baths, getting a massage immediately after. If I do the same thing here, I think going to the world championships, I’ll do some amazing things.”
But her success on the track means no romantic entanglements, a lesson she learned the hard way at the Paris Olympics, where she finished last in the final. “I’m telling you my mind was not there. Also, I didn’t even take my rest [seriously], I was just sleeping at any time. I was eating whatever I wanted to eat,” said Sekgodiso, who was in tears after the semifinals and the final.
“My training was going well, but like my heart … I was not there. I feel like I’m still young and also I travel a lot. I’m a crybaby,” she admitted.
“So when I’m out there, I don’t want any stress [related to a boyfriend], I don’t want to be calling somebody and then not getting him or something. I’ll cry. [In Paris] I was seeing somebody and he was just breaking me inside every time. He was never there for me. He was doing his own thing.”
Sekgodiso is gunning for South Africa’s first women’s 800m medal at an outdoors championship since Caster Semenya at London 2017.
A longer-term goal is breaking Semenya’s 1:54.25 South African 800m record, but she’s eager to beat her 3:59.92 1,500m mark this season. “Last year my coach [Samuel Sepeng] and I were trying to find a quick 1,500m race. It’s not easy actually because at the Diamond League, you need to have a fast time to get a lane, so we’ll try here maybe at [the South African championships], try to run maybe sub four 4:05 and then maybe I’ll get a lane and try to break the South African record internationally.”
Sekgodiso got into athletics in primary school, doing various events like the 1,200m, 100m and even hurdles.
She believes she inherited her talent from her parents, who both ran when they were young. With mom Lettie working as a security guard in town, Sekgodiso was raised by grandmother Makoma, who had a housekeeping job in the village. “It was not easy,” she recalled.
“I’d go to school without any lunch, without money. I’d taken an empty container because we were part of a government feeding scheme. Sometimes there’d be bread for breakfast. Not every day. Sometimes...” said Sekgodiso, who is called Pru at home.
Because of her upbringing she is closer to her grandmother, while her mother and younger sister Audrey have a tight relationship. “They came to visit me [earlier] this year. They were just together laughing and I was thinking ‘why do I feel like I’m an outsider?’,” she recounted with a chuckle.
Sekgodiso has built her own house next to her family home, which she is also renovating. Being able to help her family is one of her most rewarding feelings. “I’m really proud of myself, I never thought one day I would be able to do all of this, and I think it’s all because of their support as well. They’ve been there for me.”
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