{"id":13506,"date":"2012-08-15T02:44:01","date_gmt":"2012-08-15T00:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/08\/olympics-athletics-i-tried-my-best-says-semenya\/"},"modified":"2012-08-15T02:44:01","modified_gmt":"2012-08-15T00:44:01","slug":"olympics-athletics-i-tried-my-best-says-semenya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/olympics-athletics-i-tried-my-best-says-semenya\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympics-Athletics-"I tried my best," says Semenya"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

By Ken Borland<\/span><\/p>\n

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

JOHANNESBURG<\/span> Aug 14 (Reuters) – Olympic silver medallist
\nCaster Semenya has defended herself against allegations that she
\ndid not try to win the 800 metres at the London Games on
\nSaturday.<\/p>\n

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

The South African who was forced to undergo gender testing
\nafter her 2009 world championships triumph, started poorly in
\nthe final, sitting at the back of the field until she produced a
\nlate burst to finish second to Mariya Savinova, 1.04 seconds
\nbehind the Russian.<\/p>\n

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

Her performance led to speculation by television pundit
\nColin Jackson, three times the 110m hurdles world champion, that
\nSemenya had deliberately avoided winning so as not to stir up
\nfresh controversy like that in 2009.<\/p>\n

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

“I tried my best, whatever people say. There is always talk
\nbut these people know nothing about athletics,” Semenya said at
\nJohannesburg airport on Tuesday, where she received a heroine’s
\nwelcome.<\/p>\n

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

South Africa’s sports minister Fikile Mbalula praised
\nSemenya, a shy 21-year-old from an obscure rural village in
\nSouth Africa’s northernmost province of Limpopo, as an
\ninspiration to all those coming from similarly modest
\nupbringings.<\/p>\n

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

“I don’t know about her strategy in the race but she has
\nmade us very proud. Nobody gave her a chance but she showed the
\ngreatest guts of a young African woman,” Mbalula said while
\nchoking back tears.<\/p>\n

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

“She has toiled out of difficulty to become a symbol of
\ngreatness and has shown that it doesn’t matter where you come
\nfrom. From her small village in Limpopo, where the people are
\nfull of poverty, she has become the symbol of a courageous young
\nwoman.”<\/p>\n

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

Semenya, who clocked one minute 57.23 seconds in the final,
\nsaid she was satisfied with a silver medal but would be looking
\nto go one better in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n

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

“I am happy with silver but it was hard work. I said to
\nmyself that I must get something from the race and I saw that
\nthe other ladies were tired. I had to pull out my turbo-boost,”
\nshe smiled.<\/p>\n

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

“I’m concentrating now on next year, the world championships
\nin Moscow, that is my main focus. The Olympics are still four
\nyears away and we learn by mistakes so hopefully I can do better
\nnext time and win the Olympics.”<\/p>\n

(Editing by Clare Fallon)<\/p>\n

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

By Ken Borland JOHANNESBURG Aug 14 (Reuters) – Olympic silver medallist Caster Semenya has defended herself against allegations that she did not try to win the 800 metres at the London Games on Saturday. The South African who was forced to undergo gender testing after her 2009 world championships triumph, started poorly in the final, […]<\/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-13506","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\/13506","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=13506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13506\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}