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How will South Africa reward Caster’s triumph???
South Africa ’s Caster Semenya returned home today following her 800m gold medal-win at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin .
She was greeted by headlines from the country’s newspapers, expressing collective national pride for her achievement. “Welcome home, Caster, our champ. Caster, this nation is proud of you and we stand behind you, from Cape Town to Musina.”, screamed the Johannesburg-based The Times Newspaper.
Her achievement should give hope to those South Africans in the far flung and unnoticed rural areas who want to be top achievers that they too can be champions. Caster, who was born in a small village of Ga-Masehlong , has overcome a number of obstacles in getting to where she is today - hopefully her triumph will inspire her country to honour her.
There have been calls for government to rename the new South African public transport system, the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRT), after her. A lot is also expected from corporate South African to offer her incentives and rewards for making her country proud in Berlin .
from Left field:
IAAF would do well to leave Semenya alone
All eyes were on Caster Semenya when the South African lined up for the start of her 800m final on Wednesday, but for all the wrong reasons.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said on Wednesday, hours before Semenya was due to run, that the procedure for a gender test had started following her rapid performance improvement in the past year.
