The other thing again is context, within the race.
The early pace was very slow - 70s for the first lap. They hit 700m, if my memory serves me in just outside 2 minutes.
Then Dominique Scott pressed on the third lap, and so it got faster, only Semenya was able to follow, but it still wasn't fast. They reached the bell in 3:10, 3:11 for Semenya.
So she closed in 59s. It was easy too. It's one thing to look at times, but to watch it, it was so clearly a sub-maximal effort. Had she been in a race that was set up with an opening lap of 65s instead of 70, and where the third lap was a little more aggressive that Scott was able to mount, they'd have reached the bell in 3:02, 3:03, and Semenya would've run 4:04 at least.
Now that is not going to win any Diamond League races, but her 400m of 50.76, an 800m of 1:58.5 and that are all on one day, and every single one of them was a sub-maximal effort too.
Semenya would, if it happened next week, win both Diamond League races over 400m and 800m at the same meeting - she'd run 49.2s or faster, and 1:56 at a canter.
It's remarkable. I hope she breaks Koch's 400 and Kratochvilova's 800 WR, and I know many here will say no way, and prior to Friday, I'd have agreed with you, and had I not seen it with my own eyes, I still would.
This is in no way an opinion on what happened with her over the last few months (or in 2009 the first time around) - it's just the reality of the situation that we are watching.
Ross