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Caster Semenya bolstered the SA track and field team to the IAAF World Championships with a last-minute qualification to the China spectacle last night.
The 24-year-old clocked 2:00.72 in the 800m final at the Leichtathletik-Gala meeting in Linz, Austria.
She breached the IAAF’s standard entry mark of 2:01.00 to the global showpiece that will be held in Beijing from August 22 to 30.
Semenya joined a 29-member squad that was initially thin with female athlete representation (see box).
The University of North-West athlete missed the qualifying standard for the 2013 edition in Moscow, Russia, by 0.36 seconds.
Semenya is a strong medal contender given her credentials as the world champion in 2009 and a runner-up in 2011 – her only two appearances at global senior championships.
She was racing against time before last night’s meeting as she had not yet qualified by Friday’s cut-off date, which was set by Athletics SA (ASA).
But her coach, Jean Verster, did not press any panic buttons from the onset.
“Caster comes from a hard endurance phase and is in good shape to qualify,” he said.
“She will return home immediately to train for the World Championships.”
If she had failed to qualify last night, plans were already in place for Semenya to compete next week to run the qualifying time, said Verster.
Semenya strolled to second place in 2:05.47 in Tábor, Czech Republic, on Tuesday.
“I am told she had an argument with the race organisers before the race.
“They wanted her to be the pacemaker. I was surprised that she finished the race despite the incident,” said Verster.
Pacemakers or pacers are not considered full competitors and their times don’t count as official records. Despite the controversy that preceded her race, Semenya took to Twitter to assure her fans she was not throwing in the towel.
Her tweet read: “No matter how many times you fail, try till you get it right. Bo makgona ke bo Mabusheletja...” (the one who gets it right has to do it all over again).
Verster said two factors posed a challenge for Semenya during the qualifying period.
“She was busy with her [mid-year] exams and sustained a slight injury on the same knee that has troubled her in the past.
“It is the reason she also missed out on the World Student Games [that ended in South Korea three weeks ago],” he said.
Semenya marked her return from injury with a win in the 400m final at the Nové Mesto nad Metují meeting in the Czech Republic last Saturday. She ran 53.12 seconds, her second-fastest time in the single-lap event since her mark of 52.54 in 2011.
The 2012 Olympic silver medallist last raced in her specialist event in Dakar, Senegal, in May where she clocked 2:04.19 seconds.
With Commonwealth Games bronze medallist André Olivier nursing a torn foot ligament, South Africa’s chances for a medal in the men’s 800m is slim.
Olivier is Semenya’s training partner at North-West University’s Potchefstroom campus. They form part of Verster’s group of accomplished middle-distance runners based at the academic dorpie.
Rynardt van Rensburg (23) will lead SA’s charge for a medal in the two-lap event.
The IAAF’s official qualifying cut-off date for Beijing is on Saturday, but ASA pointed out that “due to the time needed for visa applications, performances between August 1 and 10 will only be considered in exceptional circumstances”
