South African teenager Caster Semenya, whose rapid improvement has prompted officials to order a gender verification test, won the women’s world 800m title with a crushing performance on Wednesday.
Powerfully built but beautifully relaxed in motion, the 18-year-old clocked 1 minute, 55.45 seconds for the year’s fastest time and a personal best by more than a second.
Kenyan defending champion and Olympic silver medalist Janeth Jepkosgei, who was tripped by Semenya and fell in the heats only to be reinstated, was more than 15m adrift for second in 1 minute, 57.90 seconds.
PHOTO: AP
Fast-closing Jenny Meadows of Britain snatched third, 0.03 seconds behind Jepkosgei in another personal best.
International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) general secretary Pierre Weiss said an investigation into Semenya’s gender was underway in both South Africa and Berlin.
He said the IAAF had allowed her to compete because “today there is no proof and the benefit of doubt must always be in favor of the athlete.”
PHOTO: REUTERS
“But one question is clear,” Weiss said. “If at the end of the investigation it is proven the athlete is not a female, we will withdraw the result of the competition today.”
Weiss said because of Semenya’s age, the IAAF had decided to keep her away from a news conference following her victory.
He added doctors consulted by the IAAF said it would take days or even weeks before a conclusion could be reached from her gender test.
Meanwhile, Usain Bolt was back on the track, but the biggest roar of the world championships so far was reserved for local hero Robert Harting when he won the men’s discus with a monster throw on his final attempt.
There were also a great distance performance from Yusuf Saad Kamel, who won a thrilling men’s 1,500m.
Bolt progressed impressively to the 200m final with an all-too-easy 20.08 seconds, then watched teammate Brigitte Foster-Hylton mine more gold for Jamaica with a 12.51 seconds victory in the women’s 100m hurdles.
Compatriot Delloreen Ennis-London added to the nation’s tally with a bronze (12.55 seconds) behind Priscilla Lopes-Schliep of Canada (12.54 seconds).
For once, Bolt was upstaged.
Discus is a popular event in Germany and there was huge disappointment earlier in the day when 41-year-old three-time champion Franka Dietzsch failed to make the women’s final and then announced her retirement.
Things did not look too good for the home fans later when Pole Piotr Malachowski twice broke his national record to lead with 69.15m after five rounds.
Berlin-based Harting was sitting in second but, after revving the crowd into a frenzy, he then found a 69.43m effort to snatch gold and set off on a new take on the lap of honor, as he hoisted the dancing, furry mascot on to his shoulder.
Kamel, one of a throng of leading Kenyans who switched allegiance to the Middle East earlier in the decade, spent much of this year trying to engineer a return from Bahrain, but ended the night draped in the flag of his adopted nation.
Ethiopian Deresse Mekonnen tried to win the 1,500m from the front, but his brave effort fell just short as Kamel, the son of a former twice 800m world champion Billy Konchellah, emerged from the pack 70m out to run him down and win in 3 minutes, 35.93 seconds.
Mekonnen took silver, while 2007 champion Bernard Lagat, a Kenyan-turned American, held off Asbel Kiprop and Augustine Choge, two Kenyans actually running in Kenya vests, for bronze.
All the favorites in the women’s 200m advanced safely to the semi-finals. American Marshevet Hooker was the fastest with 22.51 seconds, though fellow American and defending champion Allyson Felix also looked sharp.
LaShawn Merritt ran the fastest time in the world this year, 44.37 seconds, to lead the way into the men’s 400m final, with Trinidad and Tobago’s Rennie Quow and American Jeremy Wariner not far behind.
At the halfway stage of the decathlon, Ukraine’s Oleksiy Kasyanov led the way with 4,555 points, 43 points ahead of Cuba’s Yunior Diaz, with American Trey Hardee in third, a point further back.
Shohei Ohtani on Wednesday homered for the fifth consecutive game, tying a Los Angeles Dodgers franchise record. Yankees star Aaron Judge was the last player to homer in five consecutive games, accomplishing that feat last year. Ohtani, who leads the National League with 37 home runs, homered in the first inning off Minnesota Twins starter Chris Paddack. He hit a slow curveball 134m to center. He carried the bat midway down the first-base line and then did a bat flip. He did not hit a home run later in the game with the Dodgers trailing, but his presence was felt. With two outs
The 2025 International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB) Mr Universe Chinese Taipei competition began yesterday at Xinzhuang Gymnasium in New Taipei City, with more than 150 athletes showcasing their physiques. It is the first time in 16 years that the IFBB has held a competition in Taiwan, the last being the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung. The professional bodybuilding contest is bringing together athletes from Taiwan and 16 other countries, including Malaysia, Japan, the US, France and Mexico. IFBB Chinese Taipei president Hsu An-chin said in an interview yesterday that the event came to Taiwan thanks to his lobbying efforts at last
Ben O’Connor won Thursday’s monster Alpine stage to the ski resort of Courchevel as three-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar responded to attacks from Jonas Vingegaard and dropped him to cement his grip on the yellow jersey. With just three stages left before the race ends in Paris, Pogacar looks poised to retain his title, with a comfortable lead of more than 4 minutes over Vingegaard, a two-time champion. Stage 18 featured three extremely difficult ascents, including the 26.4km climb of the Col de La Loze to the finish. At 2,304m, La Loze is the highest summit in this year’s Tour. Two
US top seed Taylor Fritz dropped an early yesterday morning marathon to Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina of Spain, while the UK’s Emma Raducanu and Canada’s Leylah Fernandez reached the semi-finals of the ATP and WTA DC Open. World number four Fritz, two points from victory in the ninth game, dropped the last five games in falling to the 26th-ranked Spaniard 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 7-5 after three hours and five minutes in a match ending just before 2am. Davidovich-Fokina advanced to the semi-final against US fourth seed Ben Shelton, who beat sixth-seeded hometown hero Frances Tiafoe 7-6 (7/2), 6-4. Fritz, who had 20 aces and six
RSS