Coach tips Semenya to grab gold

WORLD 800 metres champion Caster Semenya, returning to competition today after an enforced break for controversial gender tests, will be back at her peak in October and will take the Commonwealth Games gold, her coach has said.

"Now she is not in the shape she was in Berlin (world championships]. But we will work on that," Michael Seme told journalists in the Finnish town of Lappeenranta. "During the Commonwealth Games we will make sure everything is back and we will grab that gold medal."

If the South African could run one minute 55 or 56 seconds in the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi that should be enough to win, Seme added.

Semenya, who was cleared to compete as a woman last week by the International Association of Athletics Federations, has not run competitively since undergoing tests at the Berlin world championships in August. Her winning time there of 1:55.45 was the fastest of 2009.

Seme said they were not expecting a very fast time today, when Semenya returns to competition in Lappeenranta, which is 140 miles from Helsinki.