Semenya Wins In Return To Track

Reigning world 800-meter champion runs 2:04 at low-key meet in Finland.

Caster Semenya, the 19-year-old South African who dominated the women’s 800 meters at last summer’s IAAF World Championships in Athletics, won the 800 meters in 2:04.22 at a low-key meet in Lapppeenranta, Finland on Thursday — her first competition since a year-long debate surrounding her gender ended two weeks ago.

“It is not easy to come and run 2:04 while you stayed for 11 months at home, so yeah, I am pretty happy with the performance,” Semenya said in an interview after the race with the Finnish broadcaster YLE.

Semenya, who was left off her country’s team for the African Championships in Kenya later this month, has a personal best of 1:55.45, set in her gold-medal winning run at last summer’s Championships in Berlin.

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