Semenya is a consistent sandbagger

Exactly. He/she really isn't going all out and it's pathetic.

have you ever thought that maybe its not her thats sandbagging, but its the iaaf, wada, ioc etc that have told her to do as they say or else they will ban her?

i give her props for keeping this up. she obviously can run faster but is playing by their rules. why? because she came from a super poor family, this is a job and she doesnt want to lose the paycheck.

gatlin didnt like to play by the rules so they punished him, now he plays by the rules.

What you just described is sandbagging (with a dash of blackmail). There are lots of jobs out there. The Gatlin comparison is irrelevant.

She still hasn't scared Pamela Jelimo's 1:54.01 African record.

people are saying she is sandbagging on her own, you are right she is being blackmailed to do it to save their a$$es. the gatlin comparison is relevant. he was cocky, and ducking asafa powell 3 meets in a row, then boom he is exposed as a doper. why did it take 3 months or so for them to come forward and say he tested positive? cause they were covering it up till he pissed them off and ducked powell for the 3rd time in a row

El Keniano wrote:

She still hasn't scared Pamela Jelimo's 1:54.01 African record.

Do you understand the concept of sandbagging?

Something was there for Jelimo as well, flying high one year and disappearing.

Semenya has to be sand-bagging to win everything in the 800m, yet never run any times close to the world record, always running just fast enough to win. If forced to go 1:55, Semenya does it, with the narrow win. Otherwise, 1:56-57.

Never a single word about going after the world record, unlike all of the other dominant athletes out there.

Fantastic about Ajee' Wilson's and Evan Jager's performances. Wilson has fulfilled all of her early promise and just needed this pacing work, while Jager accomplished the extremely rare feat of an American winning a major Diamond League distance race, the biggest, actually, and apparently doing so easily enough to have broken 8 with better pacing.

bigly wrote:

Why is she/he so afraid to run an 800m at full effort? Because she'll drop a 1:51 and then all of the negative publicity about her sex will start again? She coasted the final 300m in Monaco.

She's winning, right? That matters more than times.

Totally agree. She does enough to win and no more. It's a wise plan by her so not to draw problems.

The race today looked like she ran hard but had a extra gear if needed.

Am sure she could break 1.54 and very probably 1.53.5

i agree with spencer wrote:

gatlin didnt like to play by the rules so they punished him, now he plays by the rules.

So, he ran 9.77/19.86 dirty, and 9.74/19.57 clean at 33 years old?. Why he was banned? Because, apparently, drugs make him slower.

I did not see much more left in her out there. Did not think she was sandbagging but near flat out. Watch the race replay when they give you the close shot of the home stretch. That was the full stride.

In her 400 last week, she looked completely flat and outclassed.

This is not the same runner who ran 50.7, 1:58 and 4:10 in 4 hours last year. I don't see the same fitness. She ran from the front today almost from the start. That's not her normal style. I see fear.

I think Ajee has a chance to beat her, especially after rounds. Still long odds but not an impossibility.

how relaxed and easy did wilson look ? now that she has "real" belief it wouldn't suprise me if it took quicker than 1.54 to beat her at worlds.

Ajee will run 1:54.96 at Worlds.

And get fourth to the three sandbaggers, led by Caster, each running 0.1 ahead of the other.

Ajee ran wide for awhile. Clearly can go faster.

asdfasdf wrote:

Jager accomplished the extremely rare feat of an American winning a major Diamond League distance race, the biggest, actually, and apparently doing so easily enough to have broken 8 with better pacing.

Would have easily had sub 8 except for falling over. Would have easily had sub 8 except the pacing was bad. Jäger is cursed! He will never run sub 8.

All this sandbagging races, and winning by 0.1 on purpose, can't be motivating a hard training regime.

I mean how hard would you work in practice if you knew that you could push harder in the actual races and get the same winning times. And you weren't allowed to get a world record.

The whole thing is a complete farce and terrible for the sport.

I don't think the bag has sand in it though.

To be fair the pacemaker went out much too fast. Caster asked for 55 and got 53!

It wasn't 53; it was 55 and Semenya ran 56.5 or so. But Roesler, who really should have been running the race if not for the three dominant hormonal cases, not pacing it, did seem to pick up way too much from 200 to 250.

Semenya talked after the race of not being sure whether to run 400 or 1500 along with 800m. After the recent experience, maybe 400m is out, but with that muscular build and the 50.5 pr, the 400m seems like an easier task--winning time is likely to be 49 mid to 49 high. Semenya's coach and Semenya may recognize that this World's represents the last chance to get guaranteed medals and so time to stock up before the hormone standards may be restored. Would that extend to an attempt at shattering the 800m world record in the race? Probably too risky when it could still motivate a dq at world's and would certainly be more likely to get the hormone standard set down afterwards.