Publications
Partners
Oslo - Morocco's Halima Hachlaf came from nowhere to outshine reigning world champion Caster Semenya in the women's 800m event at the Bislett Games on Thursday.
The 22-year-old Moroccan produced a formidable sprint finish down the home stretch to pip Semenya and second-placed Russian Mariya Savinova in a world lead time of 1min 58.27sec.
World indoor and European outdoor champion Savinova clocked 1:58.44, while Semenya's flagging finish saw her time 1:58.61, both of which were season's bests.
Former world champion and Olympic silver medallist Janeth Jepkosgei of Kenya came in fourth, with Britain's Jenny Meadows, who won world championship bronze behind Semenya and Jepkosgei in 2009, in fifth.
Starting in lane seven, Semenya had outpaced the field and dropped in behind Irish pacemaker Karen Shinkins, hitting the 400m mark at under 57sec.
All looked to be going smoothly for Semenya until the final stretch, when the field opened up and the South African, taking the inside lane, proved not to have sufficient push to make it a memorable victory.
"I am happy with my time. Hachlaf was just too good," said Semenya, who has bucked the controversy over her gender and has now targeted a successful Diamond League campaign in the run-up to the bid to defend her world women's 800m title in August.
"This is the road to the world championships for me. I need to be strong and get back to normal. It's all part of experience. In the last 200m I need to run brave and not worry about the others."
She added: "My coach told me I should be brave and go into the front and try for a fast time.
"I fulfilled that and I'm satisfied with my time. Now I'm improving with every race and I think I can be much better than today later in the season."
Semenya, the 20-year-old Pretoria University student stormed to victory in the 2009 World Athletics Championships but was cast into limbo from soon after until July 2010 because of allegations over her true gender.
The South African was revealed to be a hermaphrodite after the leaking of test results following her 800m win in Berlin.
The incident generated anger from the South African public and government, who rallied behind the athlete, and sparked a major gender review by the IAAF, which in April introduced new eligibility rules for women athletes with excessive male hormones, a medical condition known as hyperandrogenism.
"It wasn't easy to come back after the IAAF ban, but this was the goal," Semenya admitted ahead of Thursday's meet, the fifth of the 14-leg IAAF Diamond League series.
But she seems to be slowly getting back on track to the amazing form she displayed in 2009, when she clocked a jaw-dropping personal best of 1:55.45 in winning the world gold.
