Semenya, Cheptegei double up as class shows on Gold Coast

South Africa’s Caster Semenya completed a middle distance double inemphatic style and Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei followed with a distancedouble as Commonwealth Games records tumbled on the penultimate day oftrack and field yesterday.The packed house would have been expecting to cheer on local SallyPearson in the 100 metres hurdles when they bought their tickets butwere instead treated to top class athletics from Olympic and worldchampions from further afield.There was disappointment for Australia’s neighbours New Zealand whenValerie Adams failed in her attempt to win an unprecedented fourthconsecutive shot put gold, but there was no disputing the quality of thetrack races.South African Semenya smashed the Games record to win the 1,500m onTuesday and another Commonwealth mark always looked on the cards in herfavoured 800m from the moment she hit the front on the first bend.The Olympic and world champion was soon into her powerful stride andcrossed the line 1.39 seconds clear of Kenyan Margaret Wambui, who wonbronze behind Semenya at the Rio Olympics.Semenya’s time of one minute 56.68 seconds took nearly a second off theGames record and will surely convince her to double up at next year’sworld championships in Doha and perhaps the Olympics that follow in2020.That is all dependent, of course, on the anticipated change to the rulesover testosterone levels in female athletes not forcing her out of thesport given the hyperandrogenism that causes an unusually high level ofthe hormone in her body.“Being able to win the double is a memory I’ll never forget but I’mdoing this for the youth to show them that anything is possible, if youbelieve,” she said.Cheptegei beat Canada’s Mohamed Ahmed to win the 5,000m last weekend andthe 10,000m ended up as another last-lap duel between the pair with theUgandan easing away on the final straight to win in 27.19.62, anotherGames record.CANADIAN FRUSTRATIONThere was also Canadian frustration in the 3,000m steeplechase whereConseslus Kipruto led Abraham Kibiwott and Amos Kirui to a sixthsuccessive Kenyan sweep of the Commonwealth podium.Olympic and world champion Kipruto waved his compatriots home after thefinal jump as Matthew Hughes threatened to get amongst them, theCanadian throwing himself over the line in a desperate attempt to pipKirui.“I’m absolutely gutted,” said Hughes. “The Kenyans just come in here anddo whatever they want and no one ever tries to mess with their plans.“I tried to get in the lead there with the 250m to go, I just couldn’t get myself over the line.”Jamaica, which failed to win a single one of the four individual sprint titles, again enjoyed success in some unlikely events.Fedrick Dacres and Traves Smikle took a 1-2 in the men’s discus but itwas Danniel Thomas-Dodd who sprung the biggest surprise of the eveningby hurling a personal best 19.36m with her final throw to relegate Adamsto silver.“Today I left my heart out there, it was a great fight,” said the twice Olympic and four-times world champion.“Danniel deserved to win today, she threw a massive throw. She’s young, she’s strong, she’s in shape...”Earlier, England’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson won heptathlon gold with ascore of 6255, while Canada’s Alysha Newman got one of the biggestcheers of the night when she cleared a Games record 4.75m at the firstattempt to win the pole vault.That cheer might have gone to Gold Coast golden girl Sally Pearson hadthe world 100m hurdles champion not been forced to drop out of the Gameswith an Achilles injury.In her absence, Nigeria’s Oluwatobiloba Amusan put together a brilliantdisplay of high hurdling to power to victory in 12.68 seconds.