Johannesburg - Making a habit of producing astonishing performances, South African track sensation Caster Semenya is set to conjure up more magic at the Rio Olympic Games as she bids for a 400-800m double.
Less than three weeks out from the Olympics and Semenya is in the form of her life. She broke her seven-year-old 800m record by 0.12 seconds at the Diamond League meeting in Monaco on Friday.
Clocking 1:55.33, she produced the 12th fastest time in women’s 800m history, and the best since 2008.While she had hinted she would consider racing the double in Rio, her coach Jean Verster has confirmed that she will indeed be racing in both the 400m and the 800m next month.
”The 800 will be her event but she is doing really well in the 400 as well this year and we decided that we will go for the double,” Verster told Flotrack.org.”We are going to go and enjoy the 400.
Yes there is pressure but we will see how far she gets and I think she can do really well.”Semenya has shown immense versatility this season posting personal best times over the 400, 800, and the 1,500.
She improved her one-lap sprint time on three occasions this season with her season’s best of 50.74s for the national title ranking 14th in the world so far.
While Verster confirmed his charge would be bidding for the double, Semenya herself remains cautious. “It is all about improving my 400m time but we will see how my body feels and we will see if I am really going to double or not. But the main focus is on running better in the 800m.”
Breaking her national record from her world-title winning run in Berlin 2009, Semenya was measured in her tactics as she ran on the pace setter’s shoulder over the first lap before kicking over the final 150 metres.
Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba and Margaret Wambui of Kenya were still within touching distance with 100 metres to go but succumbed to the superior kick of Semenya who dragged four women in the field to season and personal best times with Niyonsaba clocking 1:56.24 for a new national record.
Former Kenyan world champion Eunic Sum was promoted to third place with her time of 1:57.47 after compatriot Wambui was later disqualified for running out of her line over the first bend.”The plan was to just go out and run my race, try to lead from the start and see what I can come up with and the result was a fantastic one in my favour,” Semenya said.
While the South African queen of the track confirmed her dominance in the 800m, sprint king Wayde van Niekerk demonstrated superb form in the men’s 400m at the same meeting.
Celebrating his 24th birthday, Van Niekerk looked in complete control winning his race in a time of 44.12.Stopping the clock 0.01sec off his season’s best, the 400m world record-holder finished ahead of Trinidad and Tobago’s Machel Cedenio and Bralon Taplin of Grenada.
“It was a tough race but but another opportunity to fine tune my racing, and hopefully by the time then Olympics come, I will be ready.”Joint national women’s 100m record-holder Carina Horn earned a bronze medal in a time of 11.14s.
Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands won the race in 10.94s.
The Star