Caster Semenya Wins in Return to Track

Caster Semenya won the 800m at a minor meet tonight in Finland, her first competition since the IAAF cleared the South African teen to compete as a woman. Looking happy and relaxed, she comfortably dealt with a larger-than-usual crowd and massive media contingent, the Guardian reports. "I felt more and more comfortable as I started to do my thing," she said after running a relatively poky 2:04.22—nearly 10 seconds slower than the time that won the world championship a year ago.

"I'm happy to get back to my normal thing," said Semenya, who missed nearly a year of competition while undergoing gender tests. "I'm not going to say I feel bitter about what happened, because I forgot about that thing a long time ago. It was just good to come back. It's a new beginning."
(More Caster Semenya stories.)