Caster Semenya wins 5000m at South African champs but misses Olympic qualifying time

Caster Semenya recorded a personal best in winning the women's 5,000m at the South African Championships on Thursday (15th Apil).

But the double Olympic 800m champion's time of 15:52.28 in Pretoria was more than 40 seconds slower than the qualifying mark (15:10:00) for the event at the Tokyo 2020 Games in 2021.

It comes just over a fortnight after Semenya opened her 2021 season with a second place finish at the same distance in the Athletics Gauteng North (AGN) Championships, in a time of 16:14.43.

Glenrose Xaba won that race, and finished second in the SA champs. Both she and Semenya run for Athletics Gauteng North. Kyla Jacobs of Western Province Athletics was third.

Semenya improving at a new distance

In May 2019, a World Athletics eligibility ruling came into effect which prevents female athletes with differing sex characteristics from competing in events from 400m to one mile (1600m), unless they reduce their testosterone levels.

Semenya has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.

The three-time 800m world champion has yet to officially announce whether she will focus on the 200m or 5000m in order to secure a spot for the Olympics in Japan.

READ: Here are seven things you may not know about Caster Semenya.

Simbine denied by wind

Also on Thursday, Akani Simbine clocked a stunning men's 100m time of 9.82s in his semi-final.

That would have been the fastest time in the world this year, and a new national record, however the wind speed of +2.8m/s was above the legal limit of +2.0m/s.

Rio 2016 Olympic finallist Simbine will race again in the SA final on Friday.