Caster’s recipe for record
FORMER OLYMPIC 400M FINALIST SAYS SEMENYA SHOULD RELENT SA star will try again to break 800m mark next month.
Though Caster Semenya has turned down offers for pacesetters in recent races, after being burned by over-zealous assistants this season, former elite athlete Heide Quinn believes the right athlete could help the world champion in an attempt to break the 800m world record.
Semenya was previously criticised for allegedly running within her abilities, with analysts suggesting she was concerned about drawing further attention to an ongoing gender debate, pointing to her questionable tactics at the 2012 London Olympics where she settled for second place behind disgraced Russian doper Mariya Savinova.
However, with a controversial rule change expected to be applied in November which would restrict her from racing internationally against women (pending court appeals), it was clear Semenya had focused her attention on shattering records this season.
Aside from obliterating the long-standing SA 1 000m and 1 500m marks, she had also clocked the two fastest times of her career in the 800m event on the Diamond League circuit.
Her national record of 1:54.25 set in Paris a few weeks ago was the fourth fastest time ever run over the 800m distance, and she was less than a second outside the 35-year-old world record of 1:53.28 held by Czech athlete Jarmila Kratochvilova.
Semenya used pacesetters in two national record attempts this year, but she was seemingly displeased with their efforts, with both athletes pushing too hard and leaving her stranded in the early stages of those races.
While she had proved she did not require assistance to run hard on the first lap, however, a pacesetter could be useful in dragging her through the crucial period of the race between 400m and 600m.
And though a world-class middle-distance runner might not be willing to sacrifice their own race to assist Semenya in a world record attempt, former Olympic finalist Quinn believed a 400m specialist might be capable.
“As a 400m athlete, I used to run 600m in training, but that was my limit,” said Quinn, the SA one-lap record holder who paced middle-distance races in the latter stages of her career.
“It depends what pace Caster wants to run over the first 400m, and it couldn’t be an average runner, but a fast 400m runner with some endurance would be able to take her to 600m.”
Semenya is due to compete at the African Athletics Championships in Asaba next week, and she is expected to have another crack at the world record when the Diamond League series resumes in Europe later in August.