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.
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