Now Caster targets world 800m record
CASTER SEMENYA says a lot of training lies ahead if she is to break the world record in the 800m, the race that won her a gold medal on the final night of the IAAF World Championship in London on Sunday.
Jarmila Kratochvílová set the 800m record of 1:53.28 in 1983, while Semenya’s winning time on Sunday was 1:55.16.
“We need to clear 1:55 first and it will require a lot of hard training,” Semenya said. “I have Olympic, world and Commonwealth titles now, so maybe it is time to target the record. It’s the next thing on the list. I know it will be difficult but I will have to attempt it soon, maybe.”
Every time the Olympic champion has lined up for an 800m race since September 2015, when she finished eighth at the ISTAF Meeting in Berlin, she has found a way to win.
And that winning streak continued at the London Stadium, despite the best efforts of Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba, the silver medallist behind Semenya in Rio, and Ajee Wilson, the 2012 world Under-20 champion.
Over the course of her winning streak, the 26-year-old Semenya hasn’t established a reputation for employing front-running tactics and this race was no different.
Wilson, who set a US record of 1:55.61 in July, Niyonsaba and Kenya’s Olympic bronze medallist Margaret Wambui all set off much quicker than Semenya and at the break it was Wilson who found herself jostling with Niyonsaba for the lead.
At the bell, Niyonsaba, Wilson and Wambui made up the top three, with Great Britain’s Lynsey Sharp tracking them, Semenya content to sit in fifth.
It was with 250m remaining that the next significant move was made, Wilson kicking hard, but Niyonsaba wasn’t happy to relinquish the lead and responded accordingly.
By now, the two were a few metres clear of the rest of the field and Semenya sensed enough danger to close down the gap.
Into the finishing straight, the three chief protagonists were running side by side, Wambui having faded from contention, and with 60m to go Semenya moved clear, able to maintain her pace to the finish.
Wilson, clearly feeling the effects of her early front running, began to fall away and had to settle for bronze in 1:56.65, as Niyonsaba held her form to take silver in 1:55.92.
Semenya added another major title to her collection, eight years after winning her first world title, while silver was Niyonsaba’s first medal at an outdoor IAAF World Championships.
The champion paid tribute to the crowd, who had shown so much support, as well as her coaches.
“I just love you guys,” she said over the stadium speakers. “It feels like home in London … there are such fantastic people here. Beautiful.”
Semenya added: “Another world title is a fantastic honour for me and I love to do it here in London. The crowd are so welcoming to me and it makes it feel even more special.”
With Semenya in such fine form, Niyonsaba was satisfied with second, for now. “I am very, very happy,” she confirmed. “This medal is for all Burundians and they are happy now. In this final, everybody was looking good ... So, I got off there as fast as possible to make it a fast race.”
Meanwhile Usain Bolt took an emotional final bow on the track at the end of the Championships before declaring that, definitely and definitively, there was no way he would ever return to sprinting.
After embarking on a special lap of honour, Bolt was asked by reporters already missing him whether he might ever change his mind.
“No, I’ve seen too many people come back and make things worse and shame themselves. I won’t be one of those people who come back,” Bolt said firmly.
Twenty four hours earlier, the 30-year-old Jamaican’s matchless sprint career had ended painfully on the last leg of the 4 x 100 metres relay final as he crumpled to the ground in the London Stadium with a hamstring injury.
Bolt, who admitted that it had been a terrible end of a “stressful” championship for him after also losing his 100 metres crown, said he had felt consoled on Sunday when someone ALSO INSIDE No doubting Thomas, P22 Extra Strong soccer, P23 Costa: I’m no criminal, P22 told him “Muhammad Ali lost his last fight too - so don’t be too stressed about it”.
Already he was looking forward to an exciting future, he said, with his management camp talking to IAAF President Sebastian Coe, about what he might be able to do for the sport in an ambassadorial capacity.
He also revealed that his coach Glen Mills, the sage of Jamaican athletics, wanted him to become his coaching assistant.
“So we’ll see how that goes,” Bolt smiled about the man who has put him through a lifetime of pain.
And the great man even had reporters laughing when he gave them a vision of what a 50-year-old Usain Bolt might end up doing.
“I’ve no idea. Hopefully, with three kids, married, still in track and field, trying to help the sport, watching it grow,” he said.
“I don’t know if I’d take my kids to the track, though. I won’t be one of those parents who force their kids into things they don’t want to do.” – ANA/ Reuters