Semenya eyeing world record in women`s 800m

Johannesburg: Olympic silver-medallist Caster Semenya has said that she has her sights set on the world record in the women`s 800m after almost a year`s break from the track.

According to Sport24, Semenya`s personal best in the women`s 800m is one minute, 55.45 seconds (1:55.45), which she clocked at the 2009 Berlin World Championships. It is more than two seconds slower than the 1:53.28 world record set by Czech athlete Jarmila Kratochvilova over 30 years ago, the report said. She revealed that her coach had said that she has to focus more on winning and breaking the world record soon, but she has to go through training first. Semenya only made her return to the track at the Lahti Games in Finland in July, with a pedestrian 2:06.58, the report added. In her second attempt, also in Finland, to qualify for the world champs, she clocked 2:04.48 at the Savo Games, 4.48 seconds outside the qualifying standard, the report further said. She did, however, demonstrate she was back to her best with a dominant run at the Rieti World Challenge in September with a time of 1:58.92, according to the report.