{"id":10145,"date":"2012-04-21T04:21:52","date_gmt":"2012-04-21T02:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/04\/athletics-semenya-qualifies-for-london-olympics\/"},"modified":"2012-04-21T04:21:52","modified_gmt":"2012-04-21T02:21:52","slug":"athletics-semenya-qualifies-for-london-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/athletics-semenya-qualifies-for-london-olympics\/","title":{"rendered":"Athletics-Semenya qualifies for London Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

PRETORIA, April 20<\/span> (Reuters) – Former world 800 metres
\nchampion Caster Semenya qualified for the London Olympics on
\nFriday when she eased to victory in one minute 59.58 seconds at
\na Yellow Pages Series meeting.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Semenya, 21, underwent gender tests at the 2009 Berlin world
\nchampionships where she won the 800 gold medal.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

She did not compete for almost a year until the
\nInternational Association of Athletics Federations cleared her
\nto run again after accepting the conclusions of an expert
\nmedical panel.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The South African Olympic committee requires athletes to
\nmeet the qualifying time twice, one at a local meeting and once
\nin an international competition.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Semenya reached her first qualifying mark when she finished
\nsecond in last year’s world championships in Daegu, South Korea.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“It’s a weight off my shoulders and I’m very happy with my
\ntime,” Semenya told reporters. “I just ran my own race and it
\nwent okay, it’s best that way and I enjoyed it, that’s why I
\nqualified.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Semenya failed to reach the qualifying standard in last
\nweekend’s national championships in the coastal city of Port
\nElizabeth, clocking 2:02.68 in windy conditions. On Friday she
\nbecame the first woman in 21 years to run under two minutes on
\nSouth African soil.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“The start was good and we had trained hard and planned to
\nqualify in South Africa. There’s now no need for me to go to the<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

African championships and I know my plans for the European
\nseason, I must just be patient,” Semenya said.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PRETORIA, April 20 (Reuters) – Former world 800 metres champion Caster Semenya qualified for the London Olympics on Friday when she eased to victory in one minute 59.58 seconds at a Yellow Pages Series meeting. Semenya, 21, underwent gender tests at the 2009 Berlin world championships where she won the 800 gold medal. She did […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-10145","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}