Caster Semenya fails to advance to 5000m final at Track & Field Worlds
The 2017 800m world champion and double Olympic gold medallist finishes 13th in her heat, with only top five finishers qualifying automatically for Saturday's final
Athletics
South Africa's two-time Olympic champion Caster Semenya has fallen short in her quest to reach the 5000m final at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon. The 31-year-old was dropped early in her heat, as the race separated into four groups with Semenya lagging back in the third on a sweltering day at Hayward Field where temperatures reached 33°C (91.4°F).
Semenya was hoping to make her first world final since the 2017 World Championships in London, where she won gold in the 800m and bronze in the 1500m. However, she missed both Doha 2019 and the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 over World Athletics' rules for athletes with Differences in Sex Development, which bars such athletes from running distances between 400m and one mile (1600m). The South African has mounted multiple legal challenges against it but has not yet had the rule overturned.
With the first five finishers in her heat qualifying automatically for the 5000m final on Saturday 23 July, Semenya could only manage 13th place in a time of 15:46.12, some fourteen seconds slower than her PB of 15:31. First in the heat was Ethiopia's Gudaf Tsegay in 14:52.64 with local favourite Karissa Schweizer finishing in fifth to take the final automatic qualification spot.
After the race, Semenya said she was pleased to run in these World Championships, even though the final result was disappointing.
"I think it is great to be able to run here," she said. "Just being able to finish the 5k, for me it is a blessing. I am learning and I am willing to learn even more. It was hot, could not keep up with the pace, I tried to stick as much as I can. But you know, it is a part of the game."
At the end of the two heats, world record holder and new world 10,000m champion Letesenbet Gidey finished with the fastest time of 14:52.27, with Olympic champion at both 5000 and 10,000m Sifan Hassan also qualifying for the medal race in a season's best of 14:52.89.
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