Caster and Luvo on course for Diamondtrophy

SOUTH African track phenom Caster Semenya will have to contend with a hectic travel schedule if she wants to earn both the women’s 800m and 1500m Diamond Trophies next week.

Semenya will be looking to become the first female athlete to be crowned overall champion of the series in both events.

She will not only have to navigate past the best athletes but will have to get from Zurich to Brussels hours after competing in the Swiss city.

Organisers have scheduled the two Diamond League finals a day after each other, making it an obstacle race for athletes like Semenya.

The winner of each event will earn the Diamond Trophy and a US$50,000 winner’s cash prize. Semenya could be walking away with a good payday if she manages to get onto the podium in both events.

Semenya has juggled between the 800m and the 1500m this season in the Diamond League while she has also raced in the odd one-lap sprint.

The three-time world 800m champion broke the national 400m record at the African Athletics Championships in Asaba, Nigeria earlier this month, chopping 0.09s off the record Heide Seyerling set in Sydney in 2000.

In the process, she became the first woman in history to dip below 50 seconds, two minutes, and four minutes in the 400m, 800m, and 1500m respectively.

Semenya has been a dominant force in the two-lap event and would complete a three-year unbeaten run in the 800m should she win in Zurich.

She posted the fourth fastest time of all time at the Paris Diamond League meeting in July, posting a new national record of one minute, 54.25 seconds (1:54.25).

Shifting between the 800m and the 1500m has cost her some ranking points - she is second in the twolap standings behind perennial challenger Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi.

Semenya is ranked joint-seventh in the 1500m courtesy of her victory at the opening Diamond League meeting in Doha where she became the first South African female to dip below four minutes in the three-and-a-quarter lap race.

Long jump world champion Luvo Manyonga is the only South African who tops the standings in an event.

Manyonga will be feeling bullish about his chances of winning his second consecutive Diamond Trophy after leaping to a meeting record of 8.53m in Birmingham last weekend.

He will be joined by compatriot Ruswahl Samaai, who beat him at the African Championships in Nigeria to successfully defend his continental title.

African 100m champion Akani Simbine is ranked fourth in the short-sprint event with 18 points after claiming two podium places.

Half-lap specialist Luxolo Adams is among the top eight in the 200m and could round off a spectacular breakthrough campaign with a place in the final.

South African women’s 100m record-holder Carina Horn also made it into the season finale.

She opened in Doha with her best result, finishing fifth and becoming the first South African woman to dip below 11 seconds, clocking 10.98.

One-lap hurdler Wenda Nel has also finished the season among the top eight.

The final start lists for the two finals on Thursday and Friday will be confirmed early in the week.