Caster Semenya made a happy return to the track on Thursday when she won the 800 metres event at a low-key meeting in Finland.
The world champion looked untroubled as she eased over the two-lap race in a time of two minutes 04.22 seconds at the Lappeenranta Games.
The 19-year-old was given the all-clear by the International Association of Athletics Federations last week to resume her career having not competed in 11 months following the furore over her gender.
Her last race came at the World Championships in Berlin where she stormed to victory in a personal best 1:55.45 to finish ahead of pre-competition favourites Jenny Meadows of Britain and Kenya's Janeth Jepkosgei.
She was barred from running thereafter as her the world governing body looked into her unusually high levels of testosterone.
Despite being nine seconds outside her personal best on her return to competition, Semenya said she was happy with her time after so long away: "It is not easy to come and run 2:04 while you stayed for 11 months at home, so yeah, I am pretty happy with the performance."
Comments