Meadows bags bronze as Semenya storms to gold

From Tom Oldfield, Sportsbeat, in Berlin

 GREAT Britain's Jenny Meadows timed her sprint finish to perfection to capture world 800m bronze in Berlin as South Africa's Caster Semenya shrugged off the tumultuous storm surrounding her gender to blitz to gold.

 FIELD OF DREAMS: Jenny Meadows reveals world 800m bronze is a dream come true

Meadows - well down on the medals with just 50 metres to go - delved deep into her energy reserves to storm past Yuliya Krevsun just centimetres from the line to finally get her hands on a major championship medal.

Semenya meanwhile, has burst onto the scene by clocking the fastest time this year at last month's African Junior Championships.

However, her explosive performances, along with her muscular physique and visible facial hair, have led to a number of questions being raised by rivals. 

But if that proved a heavy burden to carry, she did not show it in the slightest as she led from the front and romped home in 1:55.45 minutes.

But as she left the field for dead, Meadows was just making her move and she careered past Krevsun and Mariya Savinova of Russia to take bronze in a new personal best time of 1:57.93, missing out on silver by just 0.03 secs.

Meadows had been telling anyone who’d listen that she was in red-hot form but few gave her a chance of success.

She ran an impressive 1.58.63 in Monte Carlo recently and last night she just went for bust.

Her time carved nearly a second from that mark and moved her to third on the all-time British list, behind only double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes and Kirsty Wade.

“It's an absolute dream come true,” said Meadows.

“All the young athletes out there should know that I never made it to a junior final, I was always stuck in the relay.

“People never thought I would make it but here I am in my first major championships final and I’m number three in the world.

“It proves you should never say never, you should always believe in yourself. If you work hard and keep the faith, good things will happen.”

Meadows ran a smart tactical race, staying out of trouble as the sharp-elbowed Semenya and wily Janeth Jepkosgei tussled for control.

But the former sprinter's turn of speed proved decisive as she overtook Krevsun to claim the final podium place by just seven hundredths of a second.

“The key was my strength,” she added.

“I thought I might have the silver actually. I knew I had a medal when I crossed the line and I thought it was probably bronze but I'd have loved to get silver."

Meadows is coached by husband Trevor Painter, a marriage of convenience when it comes to transforming her career from underachieving one-lapper to a World Championship medallist.

“I remember not going to the Athens Olympics and I sat down with Trevor and decided that I was not quick enough over 200m to do the 400m anymore,” she said.

“So I thought I would give the 800m a go and I made steady progress and went to Beijing, which gave me great experience.

“I came here knowing there were three years to go to London and the plan has also been to be competitive for a medal there - this has just come three years early but I’m not complaining.”

Semenya was allowed to compete - despite an official investigation into her gender by the sport’s world governing body.

"At this time, we don't have any conclusive evidence why she would not be able to run," said IAAF director of communications Nick Davies.

Meadows refused to get drawn on the story, which dominated talk at Berlin’s Olympiastadion last night.

“I can only speak for the British camp and we just have to go out there and be professional,” she added.

“We might have personal opinions about it but we have to get on with it.

“I've got a medal regardless so I don't really care to be honest but we must be professional as a team.”