Caster Semenya wins women's 800m Olympic gold as athletics programme concludes
By Andy Charles
Last Updated: 21/08/16 5:12am
Caster Semenya won her first Olympic Games gold medal with a dominant display in the final of the women's 800m in Rio.
The South African star set a new personal best of 1:55.33 over the two-lap distance and broke the national record in going one better than her silver medal performance at London 2012.
"The race was a little bit quick, the first 400 we were pushing ourselves, it was great," Semenya said. "It was just about being patient and do what you do best."
Britain's Lynsey Sharp also set a huge personal best of 1:57.69 to finish sixth, and she added: "It was a great race to be part of.
"I knew it was going to be very competitive and to run my fastest ever time in an Olympic final, I have to be happy with but I'm a little bit frustrated because I know that I can go faster than that.
"It wasn't necessarily about times but being competitive and I feel like I did myself justice."
Morgan Lake finished 10th in the women's high jump, which was won by Spain's Ruth Beitia.
Lake cleared 1.93m but that was four centimetres off the winning jump, although the gold medal was secured with a success one centimetre lower than the new British record achieved by Katarina Johnson-Thompson in the heptathlon last weekend.
Charlie Grice finished the 1,500m final 12th in 3:51.73, with the gold medal going to Matthew Centrowitz of the United States in something of an upset.
"Very happy to be here but was hoping to perform a bit better than that," Grice said. "But, still, I can hold my head high because apart from the Spanish guy (David Bustos) I was the only European in that race."
Germany's Thomas Rohrer was the only thrower to pass the 90-metre mark in the final of the men's javelin, with his throw of 90.30m enough to secure gold.
And the final gold of the track and field competition was won by the United States as Arman Hall, Tony McQuay, Gil Roberts and Lashawn Merritt won the men's 4x400m relay.
The USA topped the athletics medal table with 13 golds, 10 silvers and eight bronzes, with Team GB sixth on seven medals, matching the target set for them before the Games by UK Sport.
