Semenya in fine form to face old foes
Dibaba’s speed endurance a test
The opening leg of the IAAF Diamond League in Qatar tonight will see a replay of some of the Rio Olympics duels with Caster Semenya and Akani Simbine set to face familiar foes in their respective events.
Olympic champion Semenya begins the defence of her 800m title against Kenyan Margaret Nyambui – a bronze medallist in their Rio final last year – though much of the spotlight will be on Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba who debuts over the one-lap final tonight.
This is one particular race where Semenya will test herself against Dibaba’s speed endurance.
The SA multiple champion across the mid-distances left for Doha at the back of a good start to the season.
“It’s not really a pressure [to defend the Diamond] but what’s important is how I will run my own race and I am in good shape too,” Semenya told Sowetan.
Semenya bagged a 400m and 800m double at the senior national championships a fortnight ago, as well as the 400m, 800m and 1 500m treble at the University Students Championships in Cape Town last weekend.
Semenya, 26, took the students’ 800m title in 2:00.99, a mark that has placed her inside the world’s top 10 times this year. “The students games was just to sharpen up like I said before, but, ideally, I’d like to run closer to two minutes or something between 1:58 and 1:59.”
In tonight’s other anticipated clash, Simbine will size up Asafa Powell of Jamaica and Justin Gatlin in the 100m final that also has rising Canada speedster Andre De Grasse.
While Gatlin and De Grasse beat Simbine to the podium in the short dash final in Rio last year, Simbine cannot be underestimated as he has already claimed the scalp of his one-time idol Powell in an official race.
Simbine, 23, edged the self-proclaimed king of sub-10 seconds Powell at a meeting in Hungary just before the Olympics, when he powered to a new SA record in July.