Caster Samania wanted a run tonight that she does not know, does not like, doubtless interested in her and certainly not good at it.
Still, the South African runner stood on the starting line in the 5,000-meter qualifiers at the World Championships in Oregon and 15:46:12 minutes later crossed the finish line in 28th place out of 35 runners who set out.
Of course she did not make it to the finals.
When the nightmare ended she was not interviewed, just mumbled something about the heat, and disappeared.
Samania has never faced such a situation.
Ever since she burst into consciousness at the 2009 World Championships with a gold medal in the 800-meter dash, the South African has been nominated to win every time she has competed.
She dominated the mediocre runs when she won three gold medals at world championships in the 800 meters and silver at 1500, to which she added two Olympic medals in the 800.
Apparently she would have been nominated for similar achievements at the current World Championships if she had competed at distances where she is strong, but that as I recall was banned from her.
Caster Semenya 🇿🇦 will run the 5000m in @ WCHoregon22 today
This will be the first time since the 2017 Worlds 🇬🇧 that Semenya has raced in a World Championship !!
Last time, she won the 800m title pic.twitter.com/ysOiGg2ZKt
- Victor K Almeida @ (@AlmeidaVictorK) July 20, 2022
In 2018 the World Athletics Federation announced a series of new laws pertaining to female athletes with “gender developmental disorders” and whose testosterone levels are higher than normal.
Samania, who came under these definitions, was required to take drugs that lower testosterone levels in order to be allowed to participate in the 400, 800 and 1500 meter runs, which were part of an impressive list of seven "problematic" competitions.
The feeling among the public was that these laws were enacted specifically to "stop" her markers, which in a statement she passed through her lawyer said;
"It's a violation of the value of sports."
Samania struggled.
She appealed and sought justice, but lost.
The struggle with the authorities took a heavy toll on her, when she said "he destroyed me and harmed me physically and mentally."
To Tokyo 2020 she tried to qualify through the same 5000 run that she is not interested in, and despite several attempts she did not meet the criterion and stayed at home.
When the opportunity came to make up for it in the current World Cup thanks to the injuries and retirements of a number of runners, the 31-year-old South African took it.
Bookmark in action, tonight in the US, Photo: EPI
It was clear to her that she would not win or advance to the final, but it was probably important enough to her.
Maybe it's the pure love for the sport, maybe a longing for the world championship she has not participated in since 2017 and maybe the desire to show everyone that she is still here and there is no way to make her disappear from the sport.
Moments after recovering from the run she told the media;
"It's great to run here. For me to finish five kilometers is a kind of blessing. I learn the distance and am willing to learn more. It was hot and I couldn't keep up, but it's part of the game."
Simultaneously with the run of Samania, the president of the World Athletics Association Sebastian Kou announced the continuation of the struggle for the defense of women’s sports;
"We always go after science, and science is very clear" he said;
"Testosterone is the key to the level of performance of athletes. We have only two categories in sports: age and gender. Age because we do not want an Olympic runner to face a 14-year-old boy, and gender because if we do not separate men from women women will never win a sports competition."
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