Semenya romps to win in 800

Caster Semenya easily won the women’s 800 at the Prefontaine Classic at Stanford, Calif., as an international court continues to debate her future in the event.

The reigning Olympic champion and embattled three-time world champion won in 1 minute, 55.70 seconds, nearly three seconds ahead of secondplace Ajee Wilson, in the highly anticipated race at Cobb Track and Angell Field. It’s the fastest-time ever on American soil.

“We’re happy with the win but not how we ran the race,” Semenya said. “Obviously, when you’re running 800 meters it’s all about the splits that you run. We’re not really calculated well but at the end of the day you have to execute, you have to rectify those mistakes when you’re running a race.”

It was the first time Semenya ran the 800 since a Swiss Supreme Court ruled her eligible while it considers her appeal against a new IAAF rule capping testosterone levels in women’s events from the 400 to mile.

One of a handful of runners affected by the ruling, Semenya has been fighting back. The 28-yearold South African refused to take medication to be in compliance and initially planned to side-step it at the Prefontaine by registering to run the 3,000. She was eventually cleared in time for the seventh stop on the Diamond League circuit.

Christian Coleman ran a 9.81 in the 100 to hold off fellow American Justin Gatlin in their first headto-head matchup since the 2017 world championships.