Caster Semenya won the women’s 1500m race and set a new Commonwealth Games record in another successful day for Team SA. Caster’s gold medal joins a bronze and a silver won by South African athletes today, bringing our country’s medal tally to 21 – placing us at number 5 in the rankings.


Continuing SA’s stellar performance in the pool, Bradley Tandy won a silver medal in the men’s 50m freestyle earlier in the day. The men’s 4x100m medley relay team, which included Tandy, Chad le Clos, Calvin Justus and Cameron van Der Burgh, won a bronze medal and brought SA’s swimming medals up to an impressive 12.

Caster’s win was a triumphant moment  as she finally broke Zola Pieterse’s (nee Budd) national record time, which has stood for 34 years. She stayed comfortably in fifth position for most of the race, before making her move in the final 200 metres. She left her two closest chasers behind, despite both of them running personal bests in the race.


It was a close call, but Caster crossed the line in 4 minutes and 0.72 seconds – just 0.09 seconds ahead of Pieterse’s record run in Port Elizabeth in March 1984.

This victory means that Caster is now a double Olympic 800m champion, three time world 800m champion, and now a Commonwealth Games 1500m champion.


Here are the current rankings, from www.gc2018.com:

 

Picture: Twitter @TeamSA18

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