Caster is electrifying

CASTER Semenya posted the world’s fastest 800m time since 2008 in Monaco on Friday night, and then indicated once again she could double up with the 400m at the Rio Olympics.

She is entering the 400m and 800m at the Brazil Games next month, but not the 1 500m, the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee confirmed this week. She qualified in all three events. Semenya tore away from the field on the final straight to win this Diamond League encounter in 1min 55.33sec, 12-hundredths of a second faster than the South African record she set winning the 2009 world championships.

It’s the best time on the planet since Kenya’s Pamela Jelimo dominated the women’s 800m in the buildup to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Semenya and world 400m champion Wayde van Niekerk were the only South Africans to triumph at the Herculis meet, with two other Games medal hopefuls disappointing as they finished outside the top three in their events.

Ruswahl Samaai was out of sorts as he settled for fourth in the long jump, ending with four straight no-jumps after a 7.93m best effort.

Sunette Viljoen was fifth in the javelin, her 60.17m best effort coming on her second attempt, the only time she’s cleared 60m in her past six Diamond League throws.

Semenya was SA’s undisputed star of the night.

She came in holding the 1:56.64 world lead, and was forced to run the fastest race of her life to ensure she left the track still holding her No 1 ranking.

Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi snapped at her heels for most of the contest, but she wasn’t able to keep up when Semenya hit the turboboosters on the final straight. She crossed the line in 1:56.24.

Semenya said afterwards she had intended to go that fast.

“I was expecting to run under 1:56. I am looking forward for gold in Rio.

“You have to believe in yourself and that’s what I did today.

“I dedicate my training and hard work for this PB [personal best].

“I’m pleased for myself, my coach and my family,” said Semenya, who took the silver medal at the 2012 Olympics.

“I’ll go back home now to school to catch up with my studies before Rio,” added the sports science student at North West University.

Semenya later reportedly told BBC Radio: “I think we’re going to take part in two events, four and eight. But, yeah, we still have to decide.”

Semenya’s 1 500m world ranking of 10 is slightly higher than her 14th in the 400m. But the track and field schedule at the Rio Olympics lends itself more to a 400m-800m double than 1 500m-800m.

The women’s 1 500m final is 12 hours and 25 minutes before the 800m heats, while there is a full day between the 400m final and the first round of the 800m.

To medal in the one-lap race, however, Semenya will have to improve significantly on her 50.74 career best.

Five athletes have been sub-50 this year, with US star and reigning world champion Allyson Felix at the helm on 49.68, one-hundredth of a second quicker than Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas.

At only one major championships in the past 20 years has the women’s 400m gold medallist not dipped below 50 seconds, and that was Cathy Freeman at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

If Semenya were to win a 400m medal in Rio, and Van Niekerk were to do the same in the men’s event, that could be the first time a South African man and woman make the podium in the same event at the same Olympics.

The pair, however, could be pipped by the SA rowers competing earlier in the Rio Games, in the lightweight double sculls and possibly the heavyweight pairs.

Van Niekerk, who turned 24 on Friday, secured his win on the home straight in Monaco, finishing in 44.12, his fastest time at sea level this year.

Afterwards he said he was still making improvements ahead of Rio. “It was a tough race but I’m taking every small thing as it comes.

“This is another opportunity . . . to fine-tune my racing. Hopefully by the time the Olympics come, I will be ready.”

In other events, Carina Horn did well to cross the line in 11.14 for third place in the 100m behind Dutch star Dafne Schippers, and US-based distance runner Dominique Scott was eighth in the 3 000m with a 8:46.65 personal best.

Wenda Nel was fourth in the women’s 400 hurdles and Antonio Alkana finished in seventh place in the 110m hurdles.