Gender puzzle dressed in gold
ATHLETICS
CASTER Semenya raced effortlessly into Commonwealth Games history last night, leaving athletics bosses with the tough decision of how much further they will allow her to run.
Semenya, 27, became the third woman to win Commonwealth Games gold medals in the 800m and 1500m in the same year, seeing off Kenyan Margaret Wambui in the twolap final at Carrara Stadium.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport has given world athletics governing body, the IAAF, until July to explain how it intends to implement its hyperandrogenism regulations. The handful of women’s events it has targeted most noticeably include Semenya’s.
“As a sports science graduate, you tend to understand the psychology of how to handle emotions, how to handle negativity, and turn it into positivity,’’ Semenya said after her dominant win last night.
“I’ve had to learn how to manage it myself, how to face the world.
“It’s not about what other people think of me, it’s about how I think of myself. I’m here to inspire the world, nothing else.”
Both finals this week were won by the South African in Commonwealth Games record time but left the feeling that Semenya, who ranks eighth on the 800m all-time with her personal best of 1:55.16, has a faster time in her.
Earlier in her nine-year international career, South Africans were wary that Semenya was not running her hardest for fear that decisive wins would make her even more heavily scrutinised.
Semenya, who won the 1500m final by 15m, comfortably held off Wambai (1min58.07) in clocking 1:56.68.
In the women’s shot put a good little one beat a great big one when New Zealander Dame Valerie Adams was denied a fourth straight Commonwealth Games gold medal by Jamaican Danniel Thomas-Dodd.
The 166cm Thomas-Dodd, 17cm shorter than the dual Olympic champion, was behind on a countback after four rounds when both women has thrown 18.70m.
The Jamaican propelled a national-record 19.36m in the fifth-round to win gold.
In the men’s discus Queenslander Matthew Denny fell short of a second Commonwealth Games medal, taking fourth place in the discus final.
All six throws by Jamaica’s gold medallist Fedrick Dacres were longer than any by his competitors, including Jamaican runner-up Traves Smikle. JOHN SALVADO
AUSTRALIA’S Nina Kennedy has won the bronze medal in a high-standard women’s pole vault at Carrara Stadium.
The 20-year-old’s Kennedy’s best clearance was 4.60m.
The gold went to Canada’s Alysha Newman with 4.75m while Eliza McCartney from New Zealand claimed the silver with 4.70m.
Both vaulters bettered the previous Commonwealth Games record.
After qualifying for the 2015 world championships as a teenager, Kennedy’s progress stalled for a couple of years.
She also withdrew shortly before the 2017 world titles with a quad injury.
But Kennedy has bounced back with a vengeance in 2018, improving her PB to 4.71m in February and performing with distinction on the big stage last night.
Newman clinched the gold medal with a clutch clearance at her only attempt at 4.75m after she had previously missed twice at 4.70m.
McCartney, the bronze medallist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, went within a whisker of clearing 4.80m on her final attempt, but just dislodged the bar.