Caster: I was born to sprint
CASTER: HOPES TO BE ON THE 200M START LINE AT TOKYO OLYMPICS
Semenya admits she needs to improve her technique and start out the blocks.
Though she has established herself as one of the world’s most accomplished middle-distance runners, Caster Semenya believes she was born to be a sprinter, and she is as determined as ever to put up a fight after dropping down in her specialist distance.
The 29-year-old athlete, a two-time Olympic champion and three-time world champion in the 800m event, holds the national women’s records over every distance from 300m to 1 500m.
However, with her appeal still pending in an ongoing battle against World Athletics regulations, Semenya remains suspended from racing internatiotart line nally from 400m to the mile (1.609km) unless she takes hormone suppressants to reduce her natural testosterone levels.
Unsure whether she will be cleared to run her favoured 800m event at the Tokyo Olympics, she has opted to switch her focus to the 200m sprint.
“I’ve got power and speed, which has helped me run a better 800m, but from young I ran 200m and it was always easy for me to do the sprints,” Semenya told Athletics
South Africa in an interview.
“With the conditions we had in Limpopo, I didn’t have a coach, and I had to choose middle distances...but I enjoy running 200m.
“I wish I could have run 200m from the age of 12. I don’t know where I could have been now.”
While the one-year postponement of the Tokyo Games has given her more time to prepare, Semenya has some work to do.
She clocked 23.83 seconds in the 200m semifinals at the Gauteng North Championships in Pretoria in March, and she went on to set an unofficial personal best of 23.49 to win the final.
But she will need to clock 22.80 just to qualify for next year’s Olympics, and she will need to go a lot quicker if she is to chase a medal.
Semenya admits she needs to improve her technique and her start out of the blocks, but she is confident of her ability over shorter distances, and she hopes to be on the 200m start line in Tokyo.
“It’s possible. I call myself supernatural, so I can do anything,” Semenya said.
She remains realistic, however, and though she faces the latest in a string of career battles, she insists rule changes will not keep her off the track.
“You cannot predict what’s going to happen in a month’s time, but what I can promise is that I’ll always give my best every time I get to the track, and I’ll try and run better and better.
“So the challenge is on.”