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Caster Semenya came from behind to place second in her first Olympics

Briton Mo Farah added a second Olympic gold to his collection on Saturday, winning the 5,000 meters as a frenzied home crowd cheered.

The Somali-born runner, who last Saturday gave Britain its third athletics medal of the night when he won the 10,000 meters, delighted the public by kissing the ground then doing a few sit-ups. He ran a time of 13 minutes, 41.66 seconds. Dejen Gebremeskel of Ethiopia took silver and Thomas Longosiwa of Kenya collected bronze.

Moments later, Caster Semenya from South Africa managed a silver in her Olympic debut in the 800-metre race three years after being forced to undergo gender tests.

She was last for most of the race and sped up with 250 meters to go, but could not pass world champion Mariya Savinova of Russia, who took gold. Russia also took the bronze with Ekaterina Poistogova.

Savinova finished the race in a season’s-best 1 minute, 56.19 seconds, beating Semenya by 1.04 seconds.

Later, Usain Bolt, already the winner of golds in the 100 and 200 meters at consecutive games — the first person to achieve that at the Olympics — made it a third gold in the 4x100-metre relay with Jamaica.

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Sat May 25 13:35:46 SAST 2013 ::

Aug 11, 2012

pacific

You will wish for a chance like that and you wont have it again. You are very childish.
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Aug 12, 2012

Makonese

I agree with you @pacific. She could have taken that Gold medal very easily if she wanted to. Even the commentator noticed it and wondered aloud why Semenya ran like she did, commenting that she looked like she could run another mile comfortably. Anyway, congratulations to her (Caster) on hope that she mistimed her attack to the leading pack and thus failed to catchup with the leading Russian. Hopefully, she's learnt her lesson and will go at it earlier next time.
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Aug 12, 2012

Alues

Anything is possbile. Is possible the bookies over ran her with their money. Lots of money was put on her head to win by the bookies. What if ?
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Aug 12, 2012

Makwakwa

@ Pacific and Makonese......stop unneccesary attacks, i trust she did her best...the way she ran yesterday have always been her game plan..it was just not her day yesterday..in was tough....lets congrts her, its aint like she got nothing after all.......Big-ups Caster, the only woman who claimed a medal for SA and she is dark and love rase wise...
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Aug 12, 2012

bubu552

@makwakwa u have a point my bro! im sure it looks easly from us but i trust that she gave her, i was also heart broken but proud of her same time, our golden gal so much brings so much pride to sa!
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Aug 12, 2012

bubu552

@makwakwa u have a point my bro! im sure it looks easly from us but i trust that she gave her best , i was also heart broken but, proud of her same time, our golden gal , brings so much pride to sa!

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Aug 12, 2012

cornelius

She ran the race according to her plan, and her time was still a very good time, about the same as her time in the semi's, when everybody agreed she ran a fantastic race. The winner's time was very fast, much faster than Caster has run at any stage this year. So the point is, she did her best but the other lady was simply too good on the day.

Bravo Caster, silver is brilliant, and SA is very proud of you!
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Aug 12, 2012

Mtononozi

Something is fishy with Casters victory.....i smell a rat here.I wonder how much did they pay him to be second.
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Aug 12, 2012

Mtononozi

or her for that matter.
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Aug 12, 2012

9janavy

@Alues...what you are saying is very possible.It won't the first time athletes have intentionally under performed to score big bxcks.

That being said i have not watched the race and i can not really say if she gave here best or not.The only thing that bothers me is that she scored a finish time of 1:53 in the last qualifying race but could only muster a finish time of 1:57 in the finals.That is a whole 4 seconds regression,that alone looks fishy.

Another theory is that ,she may have been scared that had she won the Gold medal ,tongues will start wagging again about her gender.We will never know what really happened but if i were to judge based on her performance in the last qualifying race ,the gold medal was easily hers.
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