South African reigning Olympic and world champion Caster Semenya has announced she will attempt the 800 metres and 1500m double at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.
The 26-year-old won gold in her pet 800m race at the world championships and a bronze in the 1500m in London in August.
“I will again be going for the double but I need to improve on my tactics (for the 1500m),’ she told reporters.
“The 1,500m is a race that excites me. I look forward to racing it.”
The 800m world record is a high priority for Semenya according to her coach Jean Verster.
Semenya won the 800m in London in 1:55.16, the fastest time in the event since 2008.
“We will be gunning for that in the next season. I think she can probably break it already but we’ve got to find the right race because you don’t want to put all your cards on the table and then get beaten,” he told South Africa’s Independent Newspapers.
“I believe a time of 1:52 is possible. It is just a matter of getting in the right race with the right pacemaker.”
The world record of 1:53.28 is now almost 35 years old and was set by Czech Jarmila Kratochvilova in Munich in July 1983.
