Coach hopes Semenya can train soon

[caption id="attachment_89664" align="alignright" width="199"] GETTING BETTER: Caster Semenya Picture: GALLO IMAGES -[/caption]

CASTER Semenya, who pulled out of the World Student Games because of a knee injury, is likely to compete again before the end of the month.

Coach Jean Verster yesterday said she had hurt the same knee that had troubled her for much of her career, forcing a lengthy break after winning silver at the 2012 Olympics.

“It’s a light knee injury and she hasn’t trained for a week,” Verster, who returned to his Potchefstroom base from overseas on Tuesday, said.

“Hopefully, she’ll start light training next week,” he added, explaining she had appointments with a physiotherapist and other sports scientists for the rest of the week. “She finishes her exams on Monday, so after that we can do some light jogging.”

Semenya had not raced since competing in Dakar in May, when she clocked a season’s best 2min 04.19sec – well short of the 2:01.00 she requires to qualify for the world championships in Beijing next month.

“Her shape was good before the injury happened. I was thinking she could go under two minutes,” Verster said. “In terms of fitness and sharpness before the injury I don’t think it’s going to set her back too much.

“Just walking-wise she’s not even feeling it. I think she’s going to run well.”

Semenya posted her personal best 1:55.45 winning the world championships in 2009. She was runner-up at the next championships in Daegu in 2011 in 1:56.35 and second at the Games the following year in 1:57.23.

In 2013 she managed a season’s best of 1:58.92, but that was only after she had failed to qualify for the world championships that year.

The deadline for qualifying for the championships in Beijing is August 10, and Verster believes she will have enough time to do it.

“If she recovers all right I think she will be ready to race by July 20,” he said. He would soon discuss her schedule with her manager, Jukka Harkonen. -David Isaacson