New approach, new record for Caster

Wesley Bo on

Taking a gutsy front-running approach, Caster Semenya was delighted with her reward on Saturday night after eclipsing her national 800m record at the seventh leg of the Diamond League series in Paris.

Unhappy with the pacing duties provided in her previous Diamond League race in Oslo three weeks earlier, where she won in 1 min 57.25 sec, Semenya turned down an offer from the organisers for a pacesetter in the French capital and took the responsibility upon herself in search of a quick time.

Hammering it hard from the gun, she stormed through the bell in 56.12 sec and charged to a convincing victory in 1:54.25, shattering her South African record by 0.91 and climbing to fourth place in the all-time world rankings over the two-lap distance.

“In Oslo we were not very happy about the pace, so I said: ‘No pace this time, see what you can get out of it’,” Semenya told the IAAF website.

“But 1:54.25... I did not expect that. I was thinking 1:54.99 could be possible but this was great.”

Aiming for her third-straight Diamond League series title, Semenya extended her lead to four points over Niyonsaba at the top of the 800m standings, securing an early spot in the season-ending final, to be held in Zurich at the end of next month.

Meanwhile, in La Chaux-de-Fonds yesterday, Rikenette Steenkamp broke her own national 100m hurdles record with an impressive victory at the annual Resisprint meeting.

The diminutive 25-year-old speedster crossed the line in 12.81, slicing 0.10 off the previous South African standard she had set in Prague last month.

Earlier, in the heats of her specialist event, Steenkamp blitzed to a fast 12.70, but her time was not considered for record purposes due to the benefit of a 2.2m/s tailwind.