Athletics
Caster to run less in SA
2012-01-26 10:32
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Pretoria -
Caster Semenya, the world’s second-best women’s 800m athlete, will not be seeing a lot of action in South Africa this year.
Her agent Jukka Härkönen said it was a mistake for Semenya to take part in so many events last year.
She was one of the stand-out performers at the local Yellow Pages Series.
At the Durban event she won both the 800m and the 1 500m events within 70 minutes.
Three hours later she even helped Gauteng North to a gold medal in the 4x400m relay event.
At the South African students event in Stellenbosch she won both the 1 500m and 400m events before coming back the next day to claim gold in the 800m.
Härkönen believes it is detrimental to the athlete to travel to and compete in too many events.
“She couldn’t train properly.
“Maria Mutola, her trainer, made it clear that the Olympics is simply too important to take any chances.
“Semenya will only take part in the 800m at the South African event in Port Elizabeth,” Härkönen said.
“She might take part in the 400m and the 1 500m once, but that will be all.”
Härkönen said Semenya will take part in a select few events in Europe in May.
“I haven’t decided when and where,” Härkönen said.