Caster Semenya says she has not lost any respect for disgraced Russian athlete Mariya Savinova.
Savinova beat Semenya to the 800m Olympic gold medal at the London 2012 Olympic games but that achievement was rescinded after she was found to have taken illegal performance enhancing substances.
Savinova had all her records dating back to the 2011 World Championships rescinded.
After her 3000m win at the third leg of the Athletics South Africa Speed Series at the Kenneth McArthur Stadium in Potchefstroom‚ Semenya said she preferred to leave the regained “gold medal” in the past.
“I have respect for each and every individual athlete and it doesn't matter which background they're from and what you've done wrong‚" Semenya said.
"At the end of the day‚ ít's all about the sportsmanship.
- Caster Semenya began her 2017 season assault with an impressive 3000m winOlympic 800m gold medallist Caster Semenya began her 2017 season assault with an impressive 3000m metre win at the third leg of the Athletics South Africa Speed Series.
"She's a great athlete but when we talk about rules‚ it works in my favour.
"It's in the past now‚ I'm still Caster and I haven't changed.
"I still want to win more medals‚” she said.
“It doesn't change anything.
"When I crossed the line‚ I was second and it doesn't matter if an athlete was suspended or disqualified.
"Reality hits and here we're not talking about possibilities‚ we're talking about realities.
"In terms of medal records‚ it looks great because my record now reads gold‚ gold‚ gold and people now call me a gold digger and that's fantastic.”
With her time of 9:36.29‚ Semenya shaved more than 10 seconds from her personal best‚ even though it was only the second time she tackled the seven-lap race.
While the distance often forms part of her off-road training‚ adding five to her normal two was a massive step.
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She paced herself well in the race and still had enough in the tank to outpace experienced 3000m runners.
Semenya was just glad to have shaken off the cobwebs but world records are not her priority at the moment.
“You can't talk about world records when you're behind on your schedule.
"What I can do is to maintain last year's performance make sure I stick to the 1:55 pace.
"Who knows if you can go faster than that?
"The main focus now are the World Champs and running better times‚” Semenya said.
“I'd be lying if I said the world record is not on my mind because I always check the splits.
"If you work hard you will be rewarded but we still have to get better and shed off injuries.
"We need to be careful in what we do and also be careful not to overtrain.”
- TMG Digital/TMG Sport
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