With another emphatic win, we may have seen the last of Caster Semenya as we’ve known her. But Semenya plans to keep racing through a rule change that’s expected to end her 800m dominance.
The double Olympic champion was reportedly asked, after cruising to a 30th straight win in the two-lap race on Friday night in Doha, if she would take medication to adhere to an imminent IAAF rule capping testosterone for women’s events between the 400m and mile.
“Hell no,” the South African said, according to media on site.
Semenya also said she will keep competing but would not race the 5000m, the shortest flat event on the Olympic program that she could move up to without a testosterone cap, according to those same reports. She could also move down to the 200m, though that would be a surprise.
Which creates a standstill.
Semenya could appeal Wednesday’s Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling, but for now the cap goes into effect next week. Athletes in said events currently above that limit must get under it and stay under it for the next four months and beyond, while sitting out competition, to return for worlds in Doha in late September.
“I keep training. I keep running,” said Semenya, who raised a single fist in the air upon introduction and then won by a hefty 2.77 seconds in 1:54.98, her fourth-fastest time ever. “Doesn’t matter if something comes in front of me, like I said. I always find a way.”
Full Doha results are here. The Diamond League hits Shanghai next on May 18.
In earlier events Friday, U.S. Olympic champion Dalilah Muhammad ran the world’s fastest 400m hurdles since last August, clocking 53.61. The race lacked 19-year-old Sydney McLaughlin, who had the world’s best time of 2018, a 52.75.
Rio gold medalist Brianna McNeal was shockingly seventh in the 100m hurdles, clipping barriers in 12.94 seconds. Jamaican Danielle Williams, the 2015 World champ, crossed first in 12.66, well off absent American Kendra Harrison‘s world-leading 2018 time of 12.36.
World champion Sam Kendricks outdueled Olympic champ Thiago Braz in the pole vault, clearing 5.8 meters for the victory. The competition lacked the top vaulter in the world this year, Swedish 19-year-old Mondo Duplantis.
Botswana’s Nijel Amos upset Kenyan Emmanuel Korir in the men’s 800m, prevailing by .21 in 1:44.29. American indoor record holder Donavan Brazier took third. Korir lost for just the third time since the start of 2017. Two-time Olympic champion and world-record holder David Rudisha, also Kenyan, has been out injured for nearly two years.
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