Caster Semenya demonstrated great patience, but once it was time to put her foot down, the Olympic champion showed her class to race to victory in a 2 000m event in Montreuil, France on Tuesday night.
Semenya had been scheduled to race in the seldom-run distance while she was fighting against the IAAF regulations for female classification at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
The CAS ruled in the IAAF’s favour, but last week, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court ruled that Semenya be allowed to run in any distance while her appeal against the CAS decision is heard.
That frees up Semenya to run in the disputed 400m to the mile events, but she got things going on a wet evening in Montreuil, near Paris with a comfortable win in the two kilometre race.
Despite a strong finish by Ethiopia’s Hawi Feysa, who pushed her all the way to the line, Semenya had just enough endurance and speed to win in a time of 5:38.19, which was just shy of Zola Budd’s SA 2 000m record of 5:38.07.
IOL