THE four-year-old union between former 800m world champion Caster Semenya and coach Michael "Sponge" Seme is over.

Sowetan can reveal that Semenya - who won a silver medal at the world championships in South Korea last month - fired the well-respected Seme in Pretoria on Monday.

As reported in Sowetan in the build-up to the championships, the relations between Semenya and Seme were strained for some time.

At that time there were reports that Seme was apparently unhappy that Semenya was "overweight" because she had not been training.

Approached for comment, Seme said: "She (Caster) came to the High Performance Centre on Monday to watch her friend Violet (Raseboya) train.

"Afterwards, she told me it was over between her and I as an athlete and coach. I don't know the reasons, (but) I have accepted it. All that I said to her was it's okay.

"I have to confess, the last time I saw Caster was when she came back from South Korea after winning a silver medal at the world championships."

"I don't know who is coaching her, but I think her agent Jukka Härkönen (who is based in Finland) will give her a training programme to follow for now."

Semenya and Härkönen could not be reached for comment at the time of going to press.