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Durban - Caster Semenya powered to an impressive double at the South African Championships Sunday, winning the 800 meters and 1 500 meters in the buildup to defending her 800 title at the 2011 World Championships.
The world champion, formerly at the center of a gender-test controversy, was far too strong for the 800 field at Durban's Kings Park Athletics Stadium. She led from the start and ran away from defending champion Mapaseka Makhanya to win in 2 minutes, 2.10 seconds.
The 20-year-old Semenya produced a burst of pace to come from way back and breeze past leader Lebogang Phalula to win the 1 500 in 4:12.93.
Semenya ran both races in the space of an hour and 20 minutes on the final day of the two-day nationals. She appeared to be holding back in both victories in hot and humid conditions in the east coast city.
In her favoured two-lap event, Semenya went through the first 400 in 61 seconds but cracked on the pace down the home straight to pull well ahead of second-placed Makhanya, who was more than two seconds back in 2:04.52.
Semenya was in complete control throughout, running in sunglasses and the light blue and red colors of her province, Gauteng North.
Despite missing out on the sub-2 minute time she had targeted before the nationals, Semenya gave her season a significant boost ahead of the European Golden League meets in Daegu, South Korea, in August.
"I was a little bit upset (to miss out on 2 minutes)," Semenya said in a TV interview. "I still have the season in Europe, I'll try to get under two minutes in Europe as I didn't manage it today."
Semenya hopes to defend her title in Daegu, two years after she won gold in a South African-record 1:55.45 at the 2009 worlds and was ordered to undergo gender tests.
In Durban, the world champion was outside her season-best 2:01.77 - which she ran in March - but still claimed the national title she was unable to compete for in 2010 after being sidelined for 11 months because of the gender controversy. The Pretoria-based runner was finally cleared to compete again last July.
"I'm not thinking about those things anymore," Semenya told the South African Press Association. "That's in the past and I'm looking to the future.
"I'm just concerned with winning the world championships and the Olympics next year."
Semenya also impressed in the 1 500 when she suddenly kicked into gear at the final bend, emerging from fourth place and running down Phalula to eventually ease to victory.
It was only Semenya's second 1 500 race of the year. She has said she may run the 800 and 1 500 at the the 2012 London Olympics.
In the absence of Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, South Africa's men's 800 world champion, Samson Ngoepe, won the title in 1:45.69. Mulaudzi didn't compete over the weekend after struggling recently with two separate hamstring injuries.
In the men's 400 hurdles final, LJ van Zyl continued his early season form to win in a blistering 47.73 seconds, the second-fastest time ever by a South African and just outside the national record of 47.66 seconds the 25-year-old Van Zyl just set in February.
The times are the two best in the world this year.
Van Zyl was pushed all the way by defending champion Cornel Fredericks as the pair went shoulder to shoulder through 350 meters, with Van Zyl holding off his rival in the final sprint.
Fredericks ran a personal best 48.14 for second, with Mozambican Kurt Couto third.
Former Commonwealth champion and 2010 silver medallist Van Zyl missed out at the South African nationals in the last two years. He finished fourth after a tactical blunder in 2009 and was disqualified for a false start last year.
