South African star athlete Caster Semenya will make her 400m international debut this week at the final 2016 Diamond League meeting in Brussels, with a view to expanding her repertoire by potentially adding that event to her specialist 800m race.
Having conquered the world in 2016 by winning the women’s 800m gold medal at the Rio Olympic Games in August, before winning her first ever Diamond Trophy in the previous Diamond League meet in Zurich last week, Semenya is in the zone, and cannot seem to do anything wrong on the track.
The 25-year-old has focused on the two-lap 800m event for most of her career, and recently began to consider competing in other events such as the 400m and 1,500m races.
In April Semenya and her coach were considering the possibility of competing at the Rio Games in more than just the 800m, where she is dominant.
The athlete decided against doing so in Brazil, choosing to focus on the two-lap event, which proved an excellent decision as she returned to South Africa with the gold medal, finishing ahead of Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba and Margaret Wambui of Kenya.
But now, with the Olympic gold and Diamond Trophy wrapped up for the season, Semenya will make her international 400m debut on Friday at the AG Insurance Memorial Van Damme event in Belgium, according to the Diamond League website.
Her personal best of 50.74s, which she recorded in April with a victory in the South African championships, would have qualified her for the Olympics.
This shows her ability to compete with many of the dominant runners in the sport, such as Natasha Hastings, Stephanie Ann McPherson and Shericka Jackson, all of whom have finished the race in under 50 seconds.
Her decision to begin competing in the 400m will no doubt provoke some international reaction, including from her rivals in that particular distance.
Semenya has hyperandrogenism, which means that she has naturally high levels of testosterone in her body, and many of her competitors complain that this gives her an edge, but as it is naturally occurring in her body, she should not be blamed or punished for it, and there is little concrete evidence that is gives any significant advantage.
The South African has had to face these criticisms throughout her career, and the debate will no doubt continue.
Semenya has never run the 400m race outside of South Africa, so her personal best time will have her ranked as low as 2036 in terms of the all-time fastest times list, but that is set to change is she begins to focus on improving her 400m prospects.
It all begins on Friday, and come Tokyo 2020, Team South Africa may be able to count on their athletics golden girl for medals in more than one event on the track.
