South African athlete Caster Semenya can be feeling extremely confident ahead of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio this August, as her form has been absolutely scintillating in the run up to the competition in Brazil.
Adding to previous top performances during the course of this year, Semenya dominated her race of choice in Monaco over the weekend at the most recent Diamond League event.
The 25-year-old won the 800m race in a time of 1:55.33, beating her previous best of 1:55.45, which was achieved in Berlin when the South African won the world championship gold medal.
The race victory saw Semenya beat rival Francine Niyonsaba, by almost an entire second with the athlete from Burundi clocking a new national record in 1:56.24. Despite the herculean effort, Semenya was head and shoulders above her competitors.
The supreme athlete was confident that she could run a sub 1:56 time in Monaco, and is now focused on winning the ultimate 800m prize in Rio.
“I was expecting to run under 1:56. I am looking forward for gold in Rio,” Semenya said after the successful race, according to the Diamond League website.
“You have to believe in yourself and that’s what I did today. I dedicate my training and hard work for this PB (personal best), I’m pleased for myself, my coach and my family,” she added.
Semenya won silver at the 2012 London Olympics, and she is determined to go one better in Rio this year.
The next Diamond League athletics meet is in London on July 22 and 23, but Semenya has decided to skip the next competition in favour of returning to South Africa and focusing on her studies at North-West University, where she is studying towards earning a sports science degree.
“I’ll go back home (to South Africa) now, to school to catch up with my studies before Rio,” she added.
After improving on her own personal best, the obvious next targets for Semenya will be to achieve a faster time than the current African record of 1:54.01, which is held by Kenyan Pamela Jelimo, as well as the best ever 800m time of 1:53.28, which was clocked by the Jarmila Kratochvilova of the Czech Republic.
The Olympics would be a wonderful place to achieve these incredible milestones, but for Semenya, the gold medal is her main concern.
