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Caster: Mission accomplished
2009-08-20 10:00
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Berlin - Everything went according to plan in Caster Semenya's gold medal winning performance at the World Athletics championships in Berlin on Wednesday, the South African athletic star said.
GALLERY: Caster Semenya
"That's the way we planned it," the country's first medallist for six years, said as the country celebrated her 800m gold medal on Wednesday night.
The 18-year-old a tore away from a quality field to post a time of one minute 55.45 seconds, the fastest in the world this year and only 1.44 seconds off the World Junior record set by Pamela Jelimo when she similarly dominated the world scene in 2008.
Following the same tactics that had brought success in the previous two rounds the Polokwane-based youngster tucked in behind defending world champion Janeth Jepkosgei as they covered the first 200m in 26.81 seconds.
In anticipation of the bell Semenya moved to the Kenyan's shoulder and took the lead as the bell in 56.83 seconds.
By the back straight there seemed little doubt as to the winner with only Jepkosgei and the Ukraine's Yuliya Krevsun in close contact as the South African wound up the pace to open a 10m gap with 80m to go.
A typical late charge by Britain's Jennifer Meadows outran the tiring Krevsun to take the bronze and just failing to catch the Kenyan.
"That was the way coach (Michael Seme) and I planned it, everything was as he told me," said Semenya after she left the stadium.
Referring to the worldwide controversy questioning her gender, she said "I didn't open my mind to negative things; these things just made me stronger for the race".
The race may have been decisive, but the aftermath was filled with controversy. After Caster's on track celebrations where there were reports of booing from some of the German crowd, the South African was whisked away from any media contact and into doping control.
Semenya did not appear for the post race conference, but IAAF Secretary General did confirm that investigations would be made into the gender allegations.
The IAAF have a 12 man medical commission, that by coincidence includes a South African doctor, and they are in contact with doctors in South Africa. They will be investigating the situation and will have results in two to four weeks. There will be a medal ceremony on Thursday.
Semenya's result is even more remarkable given the gender controversy the teenager has been submitted to in recent days.
This complex set of questioning and testing must surely impact more than any other question put to a woman.
The fact that it has been necessary to undertake this so close to a major championship beggars the question as to why this was not investigated by officialdom after the 1:56.72 World leading time in the African Junior Championships. This event, as with the 2008 World Junior Championships, and Commonwealth Youth Games are all held under the same set of IAAF rules.
Pre-race suggestions that she should be prevent her from competing was determined as unreasonable as no judgement or outcome had been received.
Ironically this is the same stadium where similar questions were raised on Polish sprinter Stella Walsh who win Silver at the 1936 Olympics. Walsh who also won gold in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics was found after her death in 1988 to have "ambiguous genitalia" and to be more male than female.
South Africa's Willem Coertzen got his first day of the Decathlon off to a good start shaving 0.18 seconds from his 100m personal best.
The 27-year-old recorded 10.9 seconds to give him an initial place behind American Trey Hardee. As Hardee leapt to another best, in the long jump, Coertzen opened with a no jump, but regained composure to earn another 891 for his second trial 7.32 metre leap.
A first trial best of 13.16 metres in Shot, one of his weakest events, saw him drop back to 21st position at the break, while the American had opened his lead to 3014 points with Ukraine's Oleksly Kasyanov moving into second with a season's best of 15.72 metres.
In the high jump Coertzen had first time clearances until 2.02 metres which required a second attempt, and then failed at his personal best height of 2.05 metres. His performance promoted him to 13th overall at this point. Then to round the night off he added a second PB in the 400m recording 48.63 seconds which left him with 4154 points in 17th place and still on target to set a new SA record.
Other South African participation was less favourable.
Isable Le Roux finished a disappointing fifth in the 200m first round heats running a 23.61 behind three time world and Olympic finalist Cydonie Mothersille from the Cayman Islands. Mothersille broke the beam in 22.69 seconds which coincidently is Le Roux's lifetime best. "My start was terrible so I lost it there, I tried with 80 to go, but there was nothing there" said the 22-year-old who won Silver in the World Student Games in July.
The Sprint hurdler Lehann Fourie finished fourth behind China's Dongpeng Shi 13.56 in the opening heat of the 110m hurdles, missing the automatic top three qualification to Spain's Jackson Quinonez by 0.4 seconds.
With the fallback of being amongst the six fastest losers Fourie was still alive in the competition until the fourth of six heats where Ryan Braithwaite of Barbados pulled the heat to a fast 13.35 and giving sixth placed Russian Evgenivy Borisov the closing 13.63 qualification mark.
Ironically Fourie's time of 13.67 was exactly that of World record Holder and Olympic champion Dayron Robles. The Cuban's third in the second heat takes him through to the semis and probably the podium come Thursday night.
South Africa's throwers continued to struggle with form. Although discus thrower Elizna Naude improved her seasons best of 59.09 to 59.67, it was well short of the 61.50 automatic qualification mark. The 31-year- old teacher ended her round in seventh with an anxious and eventually fruitless wait as an additional six qualifiers in group B took the 12th qualification to 61.08 metres ejecting Naude from the final.
Former South African now competing for Finland, Frantz Kruger spun the discus out to 59.77 metres, well below hiss 70.32 record distance, to finish twelfth in the final. Apart from South Africa's first medal ceremony since Paris 2003 and Coertzen's decathlon Thursday also brings South Africa's next medal hope, Khotso Mokoena, in action in the Long Jump, and Samson Ngoepe and Athens Silver medalist Mbulaeni Mulaudzi commence their attack on the 800m podium.
The South African marathon athletes, Norman Dlomo, Johannes Kekana, Coolboy Ngamole and Tanith Maxwell have arrived today (Wednesday) in Berlin, to compete at 11:45 Saturday (men) and 11:15 Sunday (women) in the World Championships marathon.
The group had been in a training camp for ten weeks in Potchefstroom under the watchful eye of Kenyan coach, Danson Muchoki in preparation for the World Championships.