Stuart Weir wrote this on day three of athletics, as Caster Semenya takes gold in part one of her double in Gold Coast Queensland. What is not noted is that Caster Semenya broke the three decade old South African record for the 1,500 meters, with her 4:00.71 World Leader! One more note, for so early in 2018, a very fast 1,500 meters with 4:08 being last place.
Women’s 1500m
The women’s 1500m at the Commonwealth Games certainly lived up to expectation. Scheduled for 10.05pm it was delayed by 10 minutes by a equipment fault with the temperature still 22 C or 72 F. The only disappointment was that a number of heavy rain showers throughout the evening had persuaded some of the crowd to leave early and therefore miss the race.
Beatrice Chepkoech (Kenya), who finished fourth in the 3000 Steeplechase in Rio and London 2017 led the race from the start. Chepkoech was determined to set a fast face to avoid setting up a race for the fast finishers. Caster Semenya (South Africa) had taken bronze in the 1500 in London 2017 with a late run, what could she do here? The Olympic and World Champion, Faith Kipchegon (Kenya), was absent on maternity leave.
Semanya took the lead on the final lap and won in a Games record of 4:00.71. Chepkoech was second in 4:03.09 and Melissa Courtney of Wales third in 4:03.44. Such was the pace of the race that Jess Judd (England) ran a very respectable 4:08.82 but finished 14th and last. The three medalists ran PRs.
Semanya, who is also running in the 800m, said of her race: “I am very happy with how I performed tonight. I’m proud of my efforts. It was a good race, but I always want to improve in every race I have, and learn from my last races. I want everyone to know that South African athletes are here to stay. I’m proud to be a South African. We are a great nation and we want to display that to the world”.
Chepkoech commented: “I’m so happy. I expected to be pushed, but I tried my best. It was my first time [first season] running the 1500m I am so grateful for the opportunity and the outcome.”
It was interesting to see the major places in a Championship 1500m race taken by two athletes who are not specialists or experienced in the event. Both can only get better with experience.
The race within a race for British runners – there were 3 English, two Scots, a Welsh and a Northern Irish runner in the field – was equally interesting and bronze medallist, Melissa Countney (Wales) was a worthy British Champion. She commented: “I was absolutely gobsmacked; it was all a bit of a blur at the end, but I had planned to just run a normal race and finish. I knew there was a medal at the end. I just wanted to be in the top six.”
There were strong performances by two Scots – Eilish McColgan was sixth and Stef Twell seventh. The top English runner was Sarah MacDonald in eighth. There were even two Aussies in fourth and fifth (Linden Hall and Georgia Griffith) to give the home crowd something to scream about.
This was a race to grace any championship.
