London - AFP
World 800-metre champion Caster Semenya of South Africa has her sights set on 1500m glory as well at the 2012 London Olympics. "I'm looking forward to my first Olympics and the plan is to include the 1500m," the 20-year-old told the Sowetan newspaper after winning her first race in South Africa since striking gold at the 2009 world championships. Semenya, who underwent gender verification tests following her Berlin triumph and did not race for almost a year, plans to defend the world title in South Korea during August. She clocked 2:04.12 to win a weekend 800m race in north-west university town Potchefstroom during the first leg of a national athletics series. Semenya, whose personal best is 1:55.45, says she hopes to lower her time to two minutes in the next round of a series that will be used as preparations for the trip to Asia. A back injury that prevented her competing at the Commonwealth Games in India last October is on the mend. "I feel much better and that is why I ran and won the race. I am under observation by a physiotherapist, though."