Caster Semenya will make her first appearance in a world championships in five years when she competes in the women’s 5 000m in Eugene. Image: Yann Caradec on Flickr
Caster Semenya tames southeaster to SMASH 3 000m PB in Cape Town
Caster Semenya has clocked a personal best in the 3 000m at ASA’s Athletics Grand Prix series event at a blustery Green Point stadium.
Caster Semenya will make her first appearance in a world championships in five years when she competes in the women’s 5 000m in Eugene. Image: Yann Caradec on Flickr
Two-time Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya clocked a personal best in the 3 000m at Athletics South Africa’s Athletics Grand Prix series event at a blustery Green Point stadium in Cape Town on Wednesday.
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Semenya, who has had to switch to longer distances following a ruling that prevents her from running in her favoured 800m event, finished in a new personal best time of 8:54.97.
Caster Semenya’s time was nearly 10 seconds better then her PB
That time knocked nearly 10 seconds off her best of 9:04.20 from last year and leapfrogged her up the all-time SA rankings to sixth place.
Semenya was followed home by Aynslee van Graan (9:09.63) with Kayla Jacobs (9:23.48) claiming third.
“The run was a little bit tricky,” Semenya said, noting that “mind-blowing wind” made her warm up a bit difficult and “not really settled” according to the World Track website.
“Fortunately, before the start, the wind died down a bit and worked in our favour.
“It was a great race, [I’m] happy with the result. The target obviously was to break nine minutes, and we achieved the goal [so] now we’ll have to go back to the drawing board and work more on mileage.”
