Semenya rules out competing in Olympic 200m
800m champion says age prohibits shorter race htokyo Games under threat again due to fourth Covid wave
Caster Semenya has halted her attempt to compete over 200 metres at the Tokyo Olympics and admitted “it’s not the end of the world” if she failed to qualify.
Semenya, the double Olympic and three-time world champion, is unable to defend her 800m title unless she takes medication to lower her naturally occurring high levels of testosterone.
With rules preventing her racing internationally at distances from 400m to the mile, Semenya last year announced her intention to try to compete over 200m – a distance for which she would not need to take any medication – in Japan. She only managed a time of 23.81sec, ranking her 165th in the world for 2020.
Her other option is to move up to 5,000m, and she claimed the South African title over that distance yesterday before revealing she had given up on the shorter sprint.
“We had to look into whether we can do 200 [metres] for the next five years,” the 30-year-old said. “I’m getting old‚ I’m scared to tear my muscles. We had to make sure that the decision we make makes sense.”
Semenya’s winning 5,000m time in Pretoria was 15min 52.28sec, well outside the Olympic automatic qualification mark of 15-10.00.
“We’re happy with what we’re doing. At training, we don’t stress‚“she said, and added that she hoped to compete in Europe this summer, but also in a sea-level event in South Africa that could help her qualify.
“Now is all about having fun.
We’ve achieved everything that we wanted‚ all the major titles‚ inspiring the youth. Maybe we try to go and attempt the time. It’s never too late. But if not‚ it’s not the end of the world. For me‚ it’s being healthy and being in the field for the longest.”
Semenya is also awaiting news on her application to the European Court of Human Rights in a final attempt to overturn the World Athletics rules preventing her from defending her 800m title.
Last year, her appeal to Switzerland’s supreme court against a Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling in 2019 that upheld the rules for female runners with differences of sexual development was dismissed.
Meanwhile, fresh doubt has been cast on Tokyo 2020 by Japanese politicians as the nation faces a fourth Covid-19 wave less than 100 days from the rescheduled Games.
Toshihiro Nikai, a senior ruling party official, said cancelling the Olympics remained an option if the coronavirus crisis became too dire.
The event faces mass local opposition, with a survey finding 72 per cent want the Games to be cancelled or delayed. Concerns have also been raised about Japan’s sluggish national vaccination drive.
Nikai, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party and a key backer of prime minister Yoshihide Suga, told broadcaster TBS: “If it seems impossible to do it any more, then we have to stop, decisively.”
The Games have already been delayed by a year and are being held without international spectators for the first time. Japan is grappling with rising coronavirus infections again, with numbers higher in Tokyo after the government ended a state of emergency.
However, the government is pushing ahead with preparations for the Games, incorporating social distancing measures and other restrictions. “We’ll hold the Games in a way that’s feasible,” Taro Kono, a popular minister in charge of Japan’s vaccination drive, said on a separate TV programme, according to Kyodo News.
Olympic organisers, Japan’s national Olympic committee and the Tokyo government did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Shigeru Omi, Japan’s leading medical adviser, acknowledged the pandemic had entered a fourth wave, with Kyoto University professor Hiroshi Nishiura urging that the Olympics be postponed.