Caster takes aim at 1000m

GIVEN Caster Semenya’s current form, she could give the 1000m world best a scare at the Rabat Diamond League meeting this evening.

She set a new South African 1000m best of 2:35.43 earlier this year in Pretoria, knocking almost two seconds off Ilze Wicksell’s time set in 1983.

Although her national record is almost seven seconds slower than Russian Svetlana Masterkova’s world best of 2:28.98, she has been on a roll this season.

Semenya posted the fourth fastest 800m time in history at the Paris Diamond League a fortnight ago when she clocked 1:54.25.

Masterkova was like Semenya extremely versatile over both the 800m and the 1500m, winning the Olympic double gold at the Atlanta 1996 Games.

The 1000m race will be the perfect dress rehearsal for the Monaco Diamond League meeting in a week’s time where she could become only the third woman to dip below 1:54. Semenya, middle-distance athlete Dominique Scott-Efurd and long jumper Zarck Visser will be the only South Africans in action at the meeting.

Scott-Efurd has been a model of consistency of late, improving on her best times at almost every race.

She will be lining up in the women’s 5000m buoyed by the personal best she clocked at the Eugene Diamond League in May.

The America-based athlete chopped almost 10 seconds off her previous PB by finishing eighth in 15:10.23.

She will be looking to make further inroads towards joining Elana Meyer as the only South African athlete to break 15 minutes.

She will line up against 5000m world champion Hellen Obiri of Kenya and Ethiopian Genzebe Dibaba, who boasts the fourth fastest time ever over the distance with a personal best of 14:15.41. The quality field coupled with warm conditions promises a fast time.

Long jumper Visser will be looking to continue his revival after a stellar performance at Bad Langensalza, Germany, two weeks ago.

Visser’s jump of 8.40m was his best effort in three years and the first time since 2015 that he has bettered 8.30m. He set his personal best of 8.41m at the same meeting in Germany in 2015.