Hezekiel Sepeng, South African record holder in the 800m and multiple finalist at numerous global meetings over a long period, won his event at the final IAAF Grand Prix Athletics meeting in Rieti with an impressive performance and victory over local favourite, Andrea Longo, of Italy, in a fast 1 minutes 44,86 seconds on Sunday.
It was a very good performance taking into consideration that Sepeng ran the third fastest 800m of his outstanding career in Brussels only two nights ago.
Although all the main players in the world of 800m racing — including fellow South African Mbulaeni Mulaudzi — did not compete on Sunday, the 29-year-old SA star sealed his place in next weekend’s prestigious IAAF World Final in Monaco.
Sepeng led the field from scratch and only had to put in some special effort after the pacer had not moved out of his way in time, allowing Longo to take the lead entering the final straight. Sepeng had things under control and made sure of his first place when he passed the Italian about 10m from the finish.
The only other South African athlete at the meeting, Surita Febbraio, did well to finish fourth in the 400m hurdles in a time of 55,49 seconds.
Like in the World Championships, the race produced an unexpected result when Yulia Pechonkina, the new world record holder and outright favourite, was beaten by the American veteran, Sandra Glover who passed the Russian not far from the finish.
Glover clocked 54,34 seconds against the 53,43 seconds of the Russian. — Sapa