PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa, April 14 (Reuters) – Caster
Semenya, the former womens’ 800 metres world champion, has still
not secured a place in South Africa’s Olympic team despite
victory at the national championships on Saturday.
Semenya won the 800m final in a time of two minutes 02.68
seconds, well short of the Olympic A qualification mark of
1:59.90 needed to compete in the London Games later this year.
She until June 30 to achieve the qualifying standard.
Semenya made her mark on world athletics when she clinched
the 800m world title in Berlin in August 2009 before an enforced
break of almost a year following controversial gender tests.
She lost her world title last year when she finished second
at the world championships in Daegu, South Korea.
The 21-year-old Semenya, running just her second two-lap
race under the tutelage of her new coach Maria Mutola, led from
the front in hot and breezy conditions.
She finished comfortably ahead of the second-placed athlete
Mandie Brandt, who ran 2:04.36.
Semenya did manage to improve on her season’s best time of
2:03.60 but she was well short of her personal best of 1:55.45.
(Reporting by Jason Humphries in Durban; editing by Martyn
Herman)
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