Caster Semenya raced to her first major 1500m title, smashing Zola Budd’s 34-year-old national record at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games on Tuesday afternoon.
She remained in the middle of the pack for the majority of the three-and-three-quarter lap event before she made her move with 200 metres to go.
The three-time world 800m champion move clear of the rest of the field as she looked determined over the final stretch to cross the line in a new South African record of 4:00.71.
She knocked a second off the mark Budd set in Port Elizabeth in March 1984 to break one of the longest standing records in South African track and field.
Just before Semenya’s race, the SA men’s 4x100m swimming relay team claimed a bronze medal.
Calvyn Justus (backstroke) and Cameron van der Burgh (breaststroke) were unable to get into the medal positions at the start, but Chad le Clos moved SA into third with a blistering butterfly leg before Brad Tandy maintained the pace to take them home in the freestyle.
Source: IOL Sport
