“To win with a 50, that’s crazy!” That was the reaction from Caster Semenya on Saturday after she created history by becoming the first athlete to do the “triple” in the 400m, 800m and 1 500m at the SA National Athletics Championships in Stellenbosch.
While the few thousand spectators in attendance cheered on Wayde van Niekerk as he cruised to his 400m title in 44.98, Semenya showed that she means business in going all the way in this year’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August with an astonishing set of performances on the second day of the meet.
Semenya – a former Olympic silver medallist and world champion in the 800m – won the 400 and 800 titles within an hour during the early afternoon at Coetzenburg.
She then came back at 5.20pm to streak to the 1 500 title by smashing her personal best by over six seconds in 4min 10.93sec as she beat top 1 500 American athlete Dominique Scott.
The astounding aspect of her shortest sprint is that, like in the 800m, she ran in front for most of the race. She gained speed as she flew down the home straight, and attained her goal of breaking 51 seconds for the first time in her career.
The 50.74 – the fourth fastest time by a South African, and not far off Heide Seyerling-Quinn’s SA record of 50.05 – is actually the world’s best time this year.
But the likes of American Allyson Felix and Shaunae Miller from the Bahamas – who both dipped under 50 seconds in coming first and second at last year’s world championships in Beijing – haven’t started their build-up to Rio yet.
Semenya’s main event at the Olympics will be the 800m, though, and the fact that she could run a 1:58.45 when he previous best this year was 2:00.23 indicates that the 400m is having a dramatic effect on her time in her specialist event.
“I’m overwhelmed! I didn’t expect to run like that, fast times like these. But in the 1 500, I wanted to go a little bit around 4.10 or under, which is okay. The 400 and 800, that was just another race,” Semenya said afterwards.
“Like I said, the 1 500 is one of my favourite races, since I was young. So we will try to do it under four minutes in future – we don’t know when! But that’s one of the plans. I was expecting 1:58 after running a 50 in the 400, so I am quite impressed and happy.
“(But) The 400 is my favourite. To win with a 50, that’s crazy! I had fun, as sometimes you have to enjoy what you do, and that’s what I did in this championship. I haven’t had fun in a while.
“After running fast races, you don’t feel too much pain. Obviously I will feel the pain tomorrow!”
But Semenya said that she won’t be trying to win medals in all three events at the Rio Olympics. “The main thing is to do the 800 in the Olympics as I don’t want to mess up my rounds, I wouldn’t get enough rest.”
Meanwhile, Alyssa Conley, who held off SA record-holder Carina Horn to win the 100m on Friday, completed the sprint double with a 23.01 in the 200m, yet another Olympic qualifying mark.
There was some late cheer on the track for local fans when Western Province athlete Antonio Alkana ran a fast 13.37 seconds to win the 110m hurdles event, while also posting an Olympic qualifier.
Star long-distance runner Stephen Mokoka also raised the roof when he clinched a second consecutive double by winning the 10 000m in 27:57.51 – also an Olympic qualifying time – after outlasting Elroy Gelant to clinch the 5 000m title on Friday.
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