4) Caster Semenya
At No.4 on our rankings this year is Caster Semenya who is another athlete making the rankings for the first time. Having missed out last year, the multi talented South African athlete is in the top half, and ranked in 4th place.
Semenya returned to the track in 2015 after a brief hiatus, following the controversies trailing her participation in the sport. Although she won the 800m African Games title in Congo Brazzaville last year, she proved in 2016 that she has come back for good, becoming the only athlete over that distance to go unbeaten.
She won in all Diamond League meets she competed in, and when she even opted to run the 400m at the Brussels Diamond League, she won in style, spectacularly clawing her way from 5th position in the last 100m to run a Personal Best of 50.40s.
At the 20th African Senior Athletics Championships which was held on her home soil, her popularity was so much that she drew huge roars whenever she was in action, going on to become the only only athlete to clinch three GOLD medals at the competition.
As a Nigerian, it was painful seeing how she closed and erased the gap to go past Patience George in the women’s 4x400m relay race. As expected, the fans were delirious as she brought home the baton in a National and Championship Record (CR) of 3:28.49, which then was the 2nd fastest time in the world this year.
At the London 2012 Olympics, Semenya finished with a Silver medal, but in Rio she ran a totally one-sided race in the women’s 800m as she claimed the GOLD with an NR of 1:55.28. Semenya locked down the women’s 800m and showed us that she could also be a medal contender in the 400m if she decides to compete in both races.
