Semenya back in action

26 May 2017 - 10:20 By Sports staff and AFP
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Caster Semenya reacts after winning a silver medal in the women's 800m at the London Olympic Games.
Caster Semenya reacts after winning a silver medal in the women's 800m at the London Olympic Games.
Image: REUTERS

Caster Semenya is back in action tomorrow night, in Eugene, Oregon, where she hopes to extend her 800m winning streak to 24.

Olympic champion Semenya, who has not been beaten in the two-lap race since the ISTAF in Berlin in early September of 2015, is the star in a strong field that features all top seven finishers at the Rio Games last year, including silver and bronze medallists Francine Niyonsaba and Margaret Wambui.

Semenya is the favourite, owning the 1 minute, 56.61 second, world leading time she clocked in winning the Diamond League opener early in the month.

However, British distance running king Mo Farah and US golden girl Allyson Felix will dominate the Prefontaine Classic.

Farah, who completed an unprecedented "double-double" of Olympic 5000m and 10000m gold at last year's Rio Games, will take to the track at the University of Oregon's Hayward Field with a fresh gust of doping intrigue swirling around coach Alberto Salazar.

Salazar, the mastermind behind Nike's Oregon Project, where Farah trains, is implicated in a report by the US Anti-Doping Agency about methods used by the coach.

Farah reacted angrily to suggestions of involvement in doping in February, when details first emerged.

"I am a clean athlete who has never broken the rules in regard to substances, methods or dosages and it is upsetting that some parts of the media, despite the clear facts, continue to try to associate me with allegations of drug misuse," Farah said at the time.

The full US report was leaked to US outlets and published on the internet this week.

Farah faces a repeat of his Rio 5000m final, with silver medallist Paul Chelimo and bronze medallist Hagos Gebrhiwet in the field.

In tonight's opening events Ethiopia's Olympic silver medallist Genzebe Dibaba will take another crack at the 5 000m world record, aiming to beat the mark of 14 minutes 11.15 seconds, held by sister Tirunesh since 2008.

The highlight of tomorrow's events is what is being billed as the strongest women's 200m field ever assembled, with Olympic champion Elaine Thompson of Jamaica heading the lineup.

Thompson, who won the 100m in Rio, faces fellow Olympic 200m medallists, Dafne Schippers of Holland and Tori Bowie of the US.

The powerful lineup is given a sprinkling of stardust by the presence of US sprint queen Felix, the most decorated female track and field athlete in Olympic history.

The 31-year-old has opted to focus on the 200m this year and gets a chance to measure her progress against Thompson, Bowie and Schippers, three of the four fastest over the distance this year.

Other highlights tomorrow include the men's 100m, featuring US Olympic silver medallist Justin Gatlin and Canada's bronze medallist Andre DeGrasse.

In the women's 800m Semenya heads a lineup which includes Niyonsaba of Burundi and Kenyan Wambui.

In the field events there is another Rio rematch in the men's polevault, where Brazil's Olympic champion Thiago Braz faces France's Renaud Lavillenie, Sam Kendricks of the US and Canada's 2015 world champion Shawn Barber, who flopped in Rio.

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