Semenya continues record-breaking spree

Middle-distance sensation Caster Semenya continued her impressive run of form, shattering another national record in Berlin on Sunday.

Competing at the penultimate leg of the IAAF World Challenge series, Semenya completed the women’s 1 000m race in 2:30.70, breaking her own South African mark of 2:31.01 over the rarely run distance which she had set in Rabat in July.

She earned a comfortable victory, just two days after securing her third straight Diamond league series 800m title in Zurich, finishing more than four seconds ahead of Ugandan athlete Halimah Nakaayi who took second place in 2:34.88.

The versatile 27-year-old athlete climbed to fifth place in the all-time women’s 1 000m world rankings, less than two seconds off the pace of the 22-year-old world record (2:28.98) held by Russian Svetlana Masterkova, and 1.36 short of the 23-year-old African mark (2:29.34) held by Maria Mutola.

Semenya, who had also broken the national 400m, 800m and 1 500m records this year, was set to join 19 other SA athletes in the African team next week, as they prepared to close out the international track and field season by representing the African team at the Continental Cup in Ostrava.

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