MULTI Olympic medallist Caster “Cobra” Semenya and her coach Samuel Sepeng are chasing the women’s 800m world record this year.
The pair want to pull out all the stops to set a new world record.
Fresh from pocketing R90 000 between them from Athletics SA (ASA) for breaking national records last year, Sepeng and SA’s golden girl have set the bar high for themselves. ASA has set aside R300 000 incentive to reward athletes that have smashed the national records last season.
Senior athletes will each collect a cheque of R25 000, with the juniors walking away with R10 000, while their coaches get R5 000 per record.
Semenya, who has broken the national record in 800m, 400m and 1500m will collect R75 000 with her coach taking home R15 000.
Sepeng, who is the younger brother of Olympic 800m men’s silver medallist Hazekiel, said the bonus from the athletics federation is a big boost.
He had a successful coaching stint as he scooped the SA coach of the year award in Bloemfontein last year.
Said Sepeng: “We are going for the world record, watch this space. We started training on 1 December and we have been talking about breaking the world record ever since. This is our time, this is our year.”
Jarmila Kratochvilova of Czech Republic smashed the world record in 1:53.28 at the IAAF World Championships in Helsinki, Finland in 1983.
Last year, Semenya was consistent in running 1:54 and this year she has set her sight on running 1:53, with the hope of breaking the 36 year old long standing record.
Said Sepeng: “Caster can do it. She is ready to make history.
“We just have to be smart and manage her programme carefully to avoid fatigue.”
Semenya’s main objective is to defend her title at the IAAF world champs to be held in Doha, Qatar, in September. Locally, she will compete at the SA Senior championships in April, before she embarks on her quest to Europe to take on the challenge of smashing the world record.
Sepeng added: “We’ll only do three Diamond League Series events and that should be enough to take us to the final. Our biggest focus is the world champs and the world record this year.”
