The king and queen of South African track and field, Luvo Manyonga and Caster Semenya, confirmed their dominance by claiming the Diamond League titles in their respective events in Zurich on Thursday night.
Semenya was in a class of her own after winning her third consecutive overall 800m Diamond League title following in the footsteps of Kenya’s Eunice Sum.
“It was just fantastic it was a long month of racing for me now and I feel it on my body,” Semenya told the Diamond League website.
“I like to run on my own without any pacemaker. I am consistent at this level.”
Semenya won the race from gun to tape and never felt any pressure from the quality field that effectively ran a different race to that of the South African metres ahead of them.
Caster Semenya is pleased with how she performed this season. Photo: Abdelhak Senna/EPA
She stormed over the line in a time of one minute 55.27 seconds, two seconds ahead of her nearest rival, world bronze medallist Ajee Wilson of the US.
Wilson was second in 1:57.86 with Jamaican Natoya Goule bagging bronze in 1:58.49.
Manyonga got stuck in a battle royale with compatriot Ruswahl Samaai, who looked set to claim his second big win since the African Championships last month.
The world champion leapt into the lead with an opening effort of 8.32 metres before Samaai got a hand on the title on countback by recording the same distance in the fourth round.
Manyonga, however, demonstrated his big moment temperament with a final-round jump of 8.36m to retain the title.
“I am quite happy my winning shows that I am still in good shape,” Manyonga said.
“Coming back into a great atmosphere with these fans means so much to me.”