Semenya won the race in a time of 2:35:44, beating the old record set in 1983 by Ilze Wicksell by almost two seconds, which bodes well for the Potchefstroom-based Semenya who will compete in the 2018 Commonwealth Games on Gold Coast in Australia next month.

The 800m Rio Olympics gold medalist said, “It was a tough race. The pacemaker went too quickly so I was a little disappointed.”

“The main job of a pacemaker is to guide me, not kill me. But at the end of the day, I got a new national record so I couldn’t ask for more. It’s fantastic,” Semenya added.

Equally as remarkable is that in the last track event of the evening, the seldom run 150m sprint, 2015 World Championships bronze medalist, Anaso Jobodwana, beat 100m world Champion Justin Gatlin of the United States.

Gatlin was the favorite heading into the race but the Eastern Cape-born Jobodwana had the crowd on their feet as he finished first in a time of 15.08 while Gatlin struggled home in 4th position.