WORLD 800m champion Caster Semenya is set to make her return to competitive local athletics at a Yellow Pages Summer Series meeting on December 18 in Parow.
Semenya was in the wilderness after a highly controversial fallout following her gold medal at last year’s World Championships in Berlin, where she streaked away from the field to set a South African record of 1:55,45.
But she did not compete for almost a year after the IAAF conducted secret tests, believed to be gender tests. The 19-year-old was eventually cleared, although the actual results of the tests have never been made public, and she competed for the first time this year in Finland at the Lappeenranta Games.
Semenya then pulled out of the Commonwealth Games in October with a back injury, and has not taken part in any races since. But after yesterday’s launch of the Yellow Pages Summer Series in Stellenbosch, Cape athletics fans may get a glimpse of their heroine.
Athletics South Africa board chairman James Evans could not confirm Semenya’s participation at the Parow meet, but it is understood that Semenya will run at that event.
“I know that Caster is training at the moment, but I am not sure if she will be competing in any of our races,” Evans said yesterday.
The Summer Series is made up of four meetings, starting at Coetzenburg in Stellenbosch next Friday, December 10, followed by Oudtshoorn (Monday, December 13), Port Elizabeth (Wednesday, December 15) and Parow (Saturday, December 18). There will be a special 150m race featuring Eastern Province sprint star Leigh Julius and star Paralympian “Blade Runner”, Oscar Pistorius.
The first athlete to run a sub-four-minute mile race will win R5000.
The likes of Samson Ngoepe and Tshamano Setone will be the main attractions in the mile at Coetzenburg next Friday, while other SA stars such as 400m hurdler Cornel Fredericks, women’s long jumper Janice Josephs and women’s 100m sprinter Cindy Stewart will also take part.