- CASTER SEMENYA
Semenya has been a dominant force in the 800m for some years now, but 2016 has been her most impressive season yet, seeing that the South African has maintained an unbeaten streak this year.
In April she became the first ever South African woman to win titles in the 400m, 800m and 1500m at the 2016 South African Senior National Championships, and then went on to dominate the 800m in the IAAF Diamond League series.
The 25-year old was the standout athlete at the 2016 African Championships in Durban where she was the only athlete to claim three GOLD medals, winning titles in the 800m, 1500m and 4x400m where she anchored the team to victory.
And so she came to the Rio Olympics favoured to win GOLD, having finished 2nd at the London 2012 Games. True to prediction, she won her first Olympic title by inspiring a 1-2-3 for the continent, racing to a National Record (NR) of 1:55.28, as Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba followed in 1:56.49, while Kenya’s Margaret Wambui won Bronze in a Personal Best (PB) of 1:56.89.
The race was so fast that 4th place Melissa Bishop ran a Canadian Record of 1:57.02, Polish athlete Joanna Józwik clocked a PB of 1:57.37 to place 5th, while Great Britain’s Lynsey Sharp who finished 6th, raced to a lifetime’s best of 1:57.69.
#1 Almaz Ayana