No rest for Semenya

Caster Semenya will not get an opportunity to put up her feet and catch her breath after the recent Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.

The two-time 800m world champion will instead spend the next month with her coaching team reviewing her performances in preparation for what is expected to be another busy season on the track.

Since the beginning of the year‚ Semenya has competed in the Athletix Grand Prix Series and the South African Senior Athletics Champions before going on to win gold medals in the 800m and 1,500m events at the Commonwealth Games.

Though her programme for the remainder of the year has not been finalised yet‚ Semenya is expected to be back on the track in May for the start of the IAAF Diamond League Series in Doha, where she is the defending her 800m title.

“The main thing for now is to get back to basics‚ be healthy and stay injury free throughout the season‚” she said. “At the moment we are not too much worried. It is more about working on weaknesses so that I can get better. We are going to sit down and review what we have done so far and put more focus on specific things that will help me to improve.

“As a middle-distance runner‚ focus is more on speed, but it will be about more of the same from what we have been doing.”

Over the next few months‚ Semenya is going to focus on mastering her skills in the 1,500m event and she is targeting a gold medal in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

“The 1,500m is one of the events that I looked into in previous years, but it is not an easy race to run‚” she said.

“You need to master your skills and position yourself in the right place so that when you kick you destroy.

“But obviously with what we do at training, we are ready to master this middle distance‚” she said. Semenya said breaking Zola Budd’s national record, which had stood for 34 years, would stay with her for the rest of her life.