Is two-time Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya turning her attention to 200m ? Only time will tell as she won her first 200m race of the years with some improved good footwork displayed in her race. At the end, she stopped the clock in 23.81s personal best at Tuks track in a league race at the weekend.
Semenya who tore nearly half a second off her 200m personal best seems tilted to speculation that she is turning to the shorter sprint to stay in athletics. But after breaking the SA 300m record in Johannesburg in February there has been talk that she is focusing on the 200m. Only last week she vowed to sturn the World at Olympics.
Semenya clocked 23.81sec at the Tuks track in Pretoria on Saturday‚ the university’s athletics club said. That knocked 0.45sec off her 24.26 previous best from 2019‚ but if she wants to get to the Tokyo Olympics in the 200m‚ she will need to improve by more than a second to crack the 22.80 qualifying time which she has up to June to run
Semenya owns SA records in six events from 300m to 1‚500m‚ but she is still far off Evette de Klerk’s 22.06 national record from 1989. She was No 1 in the world in the 800m and inside the top 10 in the 400m and 1‚500m‚ but she seems to have her work cut out beyond that band.
Semenya is set to compete at the Gauteng North championships at the same venue on Friday and Saturday‚ when she is expected to formally announce her plans for the season.
