Caster Semenya romped to the fourth-fastest women’s 800m ever at a Paris Diamond League meeting on Saturday night. Her time of 1:54.25 was also a lifetime best.
Caster Semenya, whose middle-distance career could be under threat because of a new International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) rule, romped to the fourth-fastest women’s 800m yet and Qatari Abderrahman Samba produced the second-best 400m hurdles yet in a sparkling Paris Diamond League meeting on Saturday.
Semenya cruised home in a lifetime best 1:54.25 and the dominant Samba clocked 46.98 seconds for his fifth consecutive Diamond League win.
Semenya, who is challenging a new hyperandrogenism rule by the IAAF, took nearly a second off her personal best as she claimed her 25th consecutive final win in the event.
Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi was second in 1:55.86.
“I did not expect that,” Semenya, who ran without pacemakers, said. “I was thinking 1:54.99 could be possible but this was great.”
The IAAF rule, against which Olympic and world champion Semenya has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, would effectively give her a choice of taking medication to restrict her testosterone level or move to longer-distance events. It is scheduled to become effective in November unless overturned by the court.
“I am just a human and if you want to be an inspiration to the world and to the youth, you cannot focus on negative things,” Semenya said.
Only Czech world record holder Jarmila Kratochvilova (1:53.28), Ukrainian Nadezhda Olizarenko (1:53.43) and Kenyan Pamela Jelimo (1:54.01) have run faster than the South African.
Samba became just the second runner to break 47sec in the 400m hurdles. The other was US world record holder Kevin Young, whose 46.78 won the 1992 Olympics. “I made a small mistake at the start, lost my balance on the first hurdle so I did not expect to run so fast,” said the 22-year-old.