Rio De Janeiro - Flexing her biceps before doing her signature cobra-strike pose, Caster Semenya celebrated her women’s 800m gold medal at the Rio Olympic Games, a medal which confirms her absolute dominance in the two-lap race this year.
The speculation of a possible world record created unrealistic expectations on the South African phenom, although she did stop the clock just two seconds short of the long-standing mark.
Former Czech runner Jarmila Kratochvilova’s time of 1:53.28 is the longest standing record in track and field history. She set the world record more than 33 years ago in Munich, completing the first lap in 56.1 seconds.
“To be honest, we are not so much focused on breaking the world record; we are focused more on being the best that we can be,” Semenya said.
“The field was fantastic and full of great runners and the best that you can be is to be in control and pace yourself better and visualise how you can do better.”
Although Semenya added world-class speed over the one-lap sprint to her repertoire with a personal best of 50.74 seconds earlier this year, it is not quite at the level of Kratochvilova’s all those years ago.
Semenya followed Burundian challenger Francine Niyonsaba through the first 400 metres in a time of 57.7sec. Niyonsaba bravely held onto the lead 600 metres into the race before Semenya kicked into gear, leaving the rest of the field like a long stretched out shadow behind her.
Semenya crossed the finish line with daylight between her and the second-placed Niyonsaba, winning in a time of 1:55.28 to shave 0.05sec off her previous best from last month.
Niyonsaba finished in 1:56.49 with Kenya’s Margaret Wambui clocking a new personal best of 1:56.89 for her bronze medal.
The South African only moved up one spot from 12th to 11th on the world all-time list, and is more than a second off Kenyan athlete Pamela Jelimo’s continental record of 1:54.01.
Jelimo, the 2008 Olympic champion, has been the only athlete in the last three decades to come close to Kratochvilova’s world mark when she posted her personal best time in the same year.
“It was just a fantastic race, the girls running were good so it was a good feeling and obviously in the race there will always be one winner - and it turned out good for me,” Semenya said.
“It was not all about running fast, it was about running a good race. I came here and I wanted to run a good championship.”
The last four years have been topsy-turvy for Semenya who suffered a few injury injury setbacks while adding no major titles to her London 2012 silver medal before this year.
She injured her knee shortly after the London Games which would haunt her long afterwards, reducing her to a shadow of her former self.
“The injury that I got, I dislocated my knee a week after the Olympics, so it has been hard, and the most important thing was to get my leg together, stay fit and injury free,” Semenya said.
“I needed to get my legs stronger so that I could be a better athlete, so here I am and all I want to do is be the best athlete that I can be.”
Shortly before the start of the Olympics, Semenya dropped her bid to run both the 400m and the 800m with the aim of winning the gold medal in the two-lap race.
Semenya said she was still undecided whether she would add the 1 500m or the 400m to her repertoire but she felt the sprint event favoured her more. – The Star