Caster Semenya Wins in Return to Track

South African teen missed 11 months while undergoing gender testing
By Marie Morris,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 15, 2010 10:54 PM CDT
Caster Semenya Wins in Return to Track
South Africa's Caster Semenya gets a hug from her manager, Finn Jukka Harkonen, as they celebrate her victory in the Lappeenranta Games 800m event in Lappeenranta, Finland, Thursday, July 15, 2010.   (AP Photo / LEHTIKUVA / Roni Rekomaa)

Caster Semenya won the 800m at a minor meet tonight in Finland, her first competition since the IAAF cleared the South African teen to compete as a woman. Looking happy and relaxed, she comfortably dealt with a larger-than-usual crowd and massive media contingent, the Guardian reports. "I felt more and more comfortable as I started to do my thing," she said after running a relatively poky 2:04.22—nearly 10 seconds slower than the time that won the world championship a year ago.

"I'm happy to get back to my normal thing," said Semenya, who missed nearly a year of competition while undergoing gender tests. "I'm not going to say I feel bitter about what happened, because I forgot about that thing a long time ago. It was just good to come back. It's a new beginning."
(More Caster Semenya stories.)

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