Golden double for SA in 800m
Mbulaeni Mulaudzi won South Africa's second gold medal on the final day of the World Athletics Championships in Berlin on Sunday night.
On Friday Mulaudzi spent anxious minutes awaiting the outcome of the third semifinal as he had been shut out into fourth place in his own race.The 29-year-old only qualified for the final as the second of two fastest losers, but it was a different man who took control of the race from the gun and held the lead to the finish on Sunday.
Running from the outside lane he closed into the inside and dictated the pace, taking the field through the bell in 53,44 seconds, and then applied more pressure.
With 200m to go he upped the pace again and powered down the home straight, holding off the inevitable challenge from his pursuers.
A desperate, but successful dip to the line earned him the gold medal. Defending champion Alfred Yego and Yusuf Kamel were given identical times of 1:45.35 for silver and bronze respectively.
And Mulaudzi, who already owns an Olympic silver medal, three world indoor medals - including one gold - and bronze from the 2003 World Championships in Paris, said his latest achievement was the best of his career.
"This is the most important medal for me," he said on Sunday.
"Today I was brave enough to control the race and to change the gears in my own time."
Mulaudzi said more can be expected from the Limpopo province, home to both he and 800m women's gold medallist Caster Semenya.
"You can still go to Limpopo now and we will find a new talent there," he said.
Mulaudzi has often paid the price for his poor tactics in championship finals, where he tends to get boxed in on the final stretch, but the world champion said he had worked hard this week on not repeating those mistakes.
"I've done three championships that didn't work out, so I spoke during the week to my wife, my coach (JP van der Merwe) and my manager," Mulaudzi said.
"We spoke about this many times and we agreed I had to run free and relaxed - that's the only way I could run. So I had to control the race.
"At the 300m mark the pace was slow so I picked up as I felt the guys were tired, so I took on a long kick so everyone would die before the finish ... and it worked!"
Earlier in the day South Africa's sole entrant inthe women's marathon, Tanith Maxwell, finished 42nd in 2:41.48 in hot conditions.
"I can't but be disappointed," Maxwell said. "All the championship marathons since 2006 have been run in hot weather. I thought this would be different.
"I was on perfect pace (for a personal best) but got stomach cramp after 25km which slowed me."
China's Xue Bai won in 2:25.15, only ten seconds clear of Japan's Yoshimi Ozaki and 16 seconds ahead of Ethiopian Asselefech Mergia who hung on for the bronze medal.
Apart from both 800m gold medals, South Africa also picked up a silver in the long jump through Khotso Mokoena, although no other athletes reached the finals of their events.
Collecting the nation's first medals since the 2003 World Championships, the team did well to finish ninth on the medals table.
Silver for Mokoena
It's silver again! Godfrey Khotso Mokoena, the Olympic medalist from Beijing, matched his long jump podium position on Saturday night at the 12th World Athletic championships in Berlin.
Two time World Champion and Athens Olympic champion Dwight Phillips confirmed his status as the "Comeback Kid" of the long jump.
After opening with a leap of 8.40m, while Mokoena had a no-jump, the American posted a second trial of 8.54m to go into a lead that would never be surpassed.
Mokoena's second round leap planted him at 8.47m, his second best ever.
The last of the initial trials resulted in a 8.31m mark which maintained his second spot as the field was reduced to eight, with the two Australians Mitchell Watt and Fabrice Lapierre dicing it out for third and fourth.
The fickleness of the field events was highlighted by the departure of defending World Champion Irving Saldino who failed to make any mark in the initial three trials.
"I knew (after the 8.47) it was a silver, but I was going for a better distance," said the 24 year old Mokoena.
"I still went strong but my take off was not as good. I felt Friday's storm had made the track a bit slower."
It's been a long haul for the previous triple jumper who changed to long jump and finished fifth in Osaka in 2007.
"I was young in Osaka, but I got fifth and promised myself I was going to do better. Coming into this championship, I was mentally prepared to do the best I could. After responding with 8.47 the plan was to go for a personal best."
Mokoena will arrive home with the team on Tuesday morning before returning to Europe for a couple more meets as preparation for the Grand Prix Final in Athens in September.
"It's great that we are now getting the medals, one gold, one silver and we still have Mulaudzi in Sunday's 800m final," continued South Africa's World Championship silver medalist.
SA DISTANCE RUNNERS RESTORE PRIDE
Early on Saturday afternoon, South Africa's distance runners restored the country's distance running pride in the marathon which was won by Abel Kirui in a new Championship time of 2:06:54.
The South African trio of Norman Dlomo (2:14:06), Joseph Kekana (2:14:39) and Coolboy Ngamole (2:16:20) finished in 12th, 17th and 22nd place respectively giving them fifth place as a team.
"The first 10kms were a little slow but between 10 and 15 it was fast," said Ngamole.
"The problem was it was slow in the beginning but the temperature went up as the pace went up," continued Dlomo, "so we have no regrets, we were all under our qualifying times. We wanted to find out where we are, and now we know."
Dlomo's 12th place is the best position by a South African in world championships since 2003. The two newcomers, Kekana and Ngamole competed well above their pre-race weight in the team competition finishing behind Kenya, Ethiopia, Japan, and Portugal.
On paper they would have done well to make it into the top 15, and with each athlete securing a season's best time, the trio have silenced critics of the ten week altitude training camp in Potchefstroom.
"We want to go back to the camp, it has been really good for us," said Dlomo.
"It's the first time Kek's and Coolboy have had a coach. Coach (Danson Muchoki) has been good, he knows his stuff. He really wanted to be here, but it's not his fault he couldn't make it.
"Next time hopefully we will be five and we will be going even harder," said the delighted Dlomo.
"Tomorrow we'll be out to help Tanith (Maxwell)," chipped in Ngamole.
"We'll jog to warm up with her, then go to the refreshment tables to encourage her.
"We had no-one on the tables, but we want to be there. She's been at the camp with us and she's part of us," added Dlomo.
South Africa's modified 4 x 400m relay team went into their second semifinal heat as the slowest qualifiers and with little in the way of expectations.
Ofentse Mogawane got them off to a good start switching the baton to Jacob Ramakoko holding third position.
Although Sibusiso Sishi went off in fourth, he quickly found himself boxed in on the back straight.
Neither dropping back nor squeezing through on the inside could extricate the youngster who had to jostle his way to Pieter Smith for the final messy hand-over.
Smith had been brought in for LJ van Zyl, who was said to have a minor hamstring injury from Friday night's 4 x 100m relay outing.
The team finished last in 3:07.88, a time almost identical to their qualifying time. The heat was won by Belgium.
"We gave it our best. The boys did everything they could for the country and the team.
"I'm not sure why LJ (van Zyl) was asked to do the 100m relay but we might have done better with him," said Mogawane.
Credit to :
Super athletics
IAAF
This must be an awful time for Caster Semenya, brought up as a girl and a woman, but now facing the possibility of being told she may not be who she thinks she is.
The IAAF has to leave the potential psychological effects of this to one side for now and let the scientists deliver their verdict on the 18-year-old South African who came from nowhere to become World 800m champion.
Gender testing is a complicated business. Basically, if questions are raised there are four main elements to consider: anatomy, physiology, chromosomal makeup and genetic composition.
Those who think it's a simple case of a naked parade, as was the norm when gender testing first happened in sport in the 1960s, are much mistaken, but anatomy is the obvious starting point.
Thankfully, the IOC was persuaded to quickly move on from the crude, unsatisfactory methods first used. Chromosome testing was the next step, and that produces an analysis that is accurate in most cases.
If you present with a XX chromatic profile, you are a woman; XY and you are a man. Easy?
Well, fairly, but how then do explain the example of a woman with secondary sexual development (breasts), anatomically female genitalia, yet with an XY chromosomic presentation? It does happen.
In simple(ish) terms, there's a condition called Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, which occurs when a part of the Y chromosome doesn't do what it should.
Called the SRY gene, it's the instigator of male foetal development. Where it does its job properly, the male hormones ping off and the male foetus develops normally.
However, in a very small number of cases (perhaps one in 20,000 I understand), there's a malfunction and both female and male genitalia develop, albeit internally, and male hormones like testosterone, are largely held in check.
For sports governing bodies like the IOC or IAAF, where fair competition on the basis of gender is a pre-requisite, this has been a real headache. How and who should decide in these cases whether the person be considered a woman or a man?
The answer is through debate, case-by-case discussion, and a lot of analysis.
The IOC has concluded that people who present with the CAIS syndrome should be considered to be female, but there are variations along the way - and of course we don't yet know the full details of Semenya's case.
All this will have to be gone through, but hopefully more privately than has been the case in Berlin this week.
The South African teenager ought to be shown more sensitivity than was afforded to the Indian runner Santhi Soundarajan (pictured above), who attempted suicide in 2007 after failing gender tests and being stripped of the silver medal she won in the 800m at the 2006 Asian Games.
She survived that ordeal and has now set up her own athletics academy in India, so her story at least had a happy ending.
It's to be hoped Semenya's will too, whatever the outcome of the gender tests she must now be anxiously awaiting.
Tuesday 25/08/2009
Mayor awaits 'Golden Girl'
Johannesburg - The mayor of 800m gold medallist Caster Semenya's home town was among the first at OR Tambo International Airport to welcome her and the rest of her team home on Tuesday.
"We are so excited, we are among the people who nurtured her," said Mamamako Mabaso, mayor of Aganang municipality in Limpopo.
Semenya and her male counterpart in the 800m, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, cracked gold and long jumper Khotso Mokoena the silver at the International Amateur Athletics Federation's World Championships in Berlin.
In spite of the controversy over Semenya's gender, Mabaso said excitement in her home village of Masehlona, outside Polokwane, had been at such a fever pitch that the town arranged for a tent to be pitched near her parent's house to accommodate the flood of visitors.
Mabaso said Semenya's parents, Dorcus and Jacob, stayed overnight at a hotel near the airport and would be on hand to greet the 18-year-old after her mixture of victory and controversy.
Four members of the Naughty Boys Football Club left their home town of Seshego at midnight to be at the airport to greet her.
Thomas Madimba said: "She has done us proud," adding that they considered her a good defender from the days when she played football in her village.
With a large South African flag draped around his shoulders, Mthuthuzeli Mabaso, from Katlehong, said he left home at 04:30 to be at the airport.
"I am proudly South African, I am proud of what they [the athletes] did to represent us."
The team was expected to arrive shortly before 9am and the gathering crowd would be held at bay by a large group of policemen already patrolling the airport.
800m Mens Final - Mbulaeni Mulaudzi (Gold)
Watch the 800m final that saw South Africa's Mbulaeni Mulaudzi win gold and South Africa's third medal of the IAAF World Championships.
Caster Semenya wins 800m final
There may be plenty of controversy surrounding Caster Semenya's participation at the IAAF World Championships in Berlin, but one can't deny what a brilliant race the 18 year old ran. Watch the race here.
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