Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Golden girl in another record dash
Semenya blitzes Monaco 800m race
SOUTH Africa’s golden girl Caster Semenya has stamped her authority on world athletics once again.
She won the 800m race at the Diamond League event in Monaco last night in record time. Semenya crossed the finish line in 1 minute 55.27 seconds, beating her previous best time, set at the Rio Olympics, by a hundredth of a second.
It is the fastest race time set by a woman since 2008 with Semenya showing she will be a force to reckon with at next month’s world championships in London.
Just a few hours before, Semenya was featured in a locally screened TV programme on SuperSport, In Conversation with Caster.
The Olympian spoke candidly about her career and her professional struggles on the show hosted by former South African cricketer Ali Bacher.
Semenya first grabbed global media attention back in 2009 when she won the 800m title at the world championships in Berlin.
The then-18-year-old’s gender was questioned by athletics bosses and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) asked Athletics SA (ASA) authorities to conduct tests.
Semenya was subsequently banned from competition.
World athletics chiefs ruled Semenya was “hyper-androgenic”, which occurs when the female body produces excessive levels of male-sex hormones such as testos- terone. Semenya, along with many South Africans, found it all rather confusing at the time.
“I’m a woman – when I pee I pee like you,” she said on the TV programme aired last night.
“I don’t understand when people say I have a deep voice. I have no doubt (that I am a woman), I know myself,” referring to the media hype eight years ago.
Her suspension was lifted in July 2010, and according to Semenya: “Instead of being negative, I turned it into a positive through the support of my family.”
Fast-forward seven years and Semenya has become a regular feature on the gold medal winners list at the biggest international athletics events, including the 2016 Rio Games, where she won gold.
In the previous Summer Games in London, Semenya clinched silver.
But that is set to be upgraded to gold after the lifetime ban of 800m Olympic winner Mariya Savinova of Russia for doping.
Semenya said: “I will accept it for my country. If you look at our medals tally, the result will be gold.”
She has been warming up for the world championships, which get under way in London in two weeks’ time.
In May, she powered to victory in the 800m race at the Eugene Diamond League meet, competing against some of the world’s best female athletes; seven out of the eight runners were Olympic finalists.
Despite her many accolades, the cloud of suspicion around her gender continues to hang over her.
Last year, the court of arbitration for sport suspended the IAAF’s testosterone policy for track and field athletes, and the world athletics organisation was given two years to come up with research that higher levels of testosterone actually gave female athletes a significant competitive advantage.
That two-year deadline runs out at the end of this month and the court of arbitration for sport will hear the case again.
In the meantime, Semenya and her coach, Jean Verster, are focused on the job at hand. Verster has been full of praise for the athlete.
“One of the things to me is the amazing person she is. She is just a fantastic person. We really clicked from the start.
“My belief, honestly, is that she can break the world record. We both feel it is not something she should go and chase. My motto is she should just enjoy her races. The time will come, but if it is this year or next year or the year after, she is still young. She has a couple of Olympics left in her,” said Verster.
“She is always positive. Enjoys what she does.”
Caster said she still has plenty to offer the sport.
“If I measure my strength and speed I think I still have five years more in the 800m.” Thereafter she might consider longer distances such as the 1 500m.
Semenya made a pretty powerful statement in her interview with Bacher.
“I believe I am a testament. I touch people’s lives. I motivate,” she said confidently.
Few in South Africa, and indeed the world, would dispute that.