Prudence Sekgodiso wins big at the ASA Awards

The Limpopo-born athlete secured the latter award with over 10,000 public votes, outshining her closest competitors, Akani Simbine, Lythe Pillay, Jo-Ann Van Dyk, Adriaan Wildschutt, Elroy Gelant, Bayanda Walaza, Glenrose Xaba, Gerda Steyn, and Viwe Jingqi, to take home the evening’s top honour.

Sekgodiso thanked her fans for believing in her.

"Firstly, I want to say thank you to my teammates, and my coach and shoutout to Athletics KZN, I saw they had a post in KZN. So, I'm grateful for the award and thanks to all my fans, yeah, I'm proud," Sekgodiso said.

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Sekgodiso says she invested significant effort into winning the award, even spending considerable money on airtime to cast votes for herself in what she described as a highly competitive category.

"I had hope but the competition was tough, to be honest but I was like, I'm gonna buy this airtime, I'm gonna vote for myself every time. I think I bought about five sim cards just to vote for myself because I'll vote for myself. I just kept on voting for myself and I have friends out there and they were gonna make sure that I win, so yeah," she added.

Sekgodiso was caught by surprise when she received her first nomination and went on to win the Female Track Athlete of the Year accolade.

Unaware that she had even been nominated for the award, she had been fully focused on campaigning for votes to secure the Personality of the Year title.

"I didn't know that I was nominated for the ASA Female Track Athlete of the Year but I'm grateful to be on the stage and yeah, show up. I'm grateful for the certificate that I got as well and yeah, I'm just excited to be here."