Brussels - South
Africa's reigning 800m world champion Caster Semenya could only finish
third in her debut on the Diamond League series at the final meet of the
14-leg series here on Friday.
Semenya was racing in only her
fourth outing since returning from 11 months on the sidelines following a
controversial investigation by IAAF, the sport's governing body, into
her gender.
The 19-year-old dropped immediately into last spot in the field and still had six runners ahead of her at 200m.
Kenya's Janeth Jepkosgei dominated the race and won in 1min 58.82sec, with Russian Mariya Savinova coming in in second.
Semenya
produced a spurt for third with a season's best of 1:59.65, a way off
the 1:55.45 time that won her the world title last year.
Since her
comeback, the South African easily won two minor races in Finland and
also claimed first place at last weekend's World Challenge meet in
Berlin, clocking a time of 1:59.90.
Her next major outing will be at October's Commonwealth Games in India.