If there are still gods on Mount Olympus, Caster Semenya will be crowned queen of the 800m again tonight

Going for gold tonight: Caster Semenya

Caster Semenya will bring South Africa to a halt tonight, just as Chad Le Clos did a week ago in the swimming pool. And, just like her butterflying compatriot, Semenya is EXPECTED to win gold over 800m at the Olympic Stadium in London.

That we should put that kind of pressure on a woman who has been through so much is both unfair and typical of this rainbow nation, where so much is expected by so many from so few in the sporting world.

But the lass from Limpopo herself appears unfazed. Just this morning, after an emphatic semi-final win of 1:57.67 on Thursday night, we read: “I was a bit nervous but this British crowd makes me feel at home and reminds me of good memories. I have to stretch out on the last 100m.

“It’s about putting on the spikes and just running. The time I ran makes me very confident. It’s about running your own race, you have to think of yourself and about yourself. You have to run a good time to get into the final and that’s what I did. I'm happy with that.

“Sometimes, if you want to run a good race, you have to forget about everybody, just think about your own race because it can disturb you.”

If there are any gods left on Mount Olympus, Caster – the fastest qualifier for tonight’s final – will see off reigning Olympic champion Pamela Jelimo of Kenya and dangerous Russian Elena Arzhakova who have both been in far better form than South Africa’s favourite athlete in the build-up to London 2012.

The complex story of Mokgadi Caster Semenya is perhaps summed up best by the girl from Ga-Masehlong herself. She says: "God made me the way I am and I accept myself."

Most South Africans, having seen the pain she went through at close quarters, would agree with that statement. So many foreign watchers are only too keen to ignore the subtlety of such self-examination.

It was when Semenya exploded on the world stage at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, with a scorching time of 1:55.45, that Caster became a household name… and her life was ruthlessly picked apart.

With nobody to protect her, with the world’s media desperately seeking lurid details, somebody leaked the news that Caster Semenya had been subjected to gender testing just THREE HOURS before the World Championship final.

Lamine Diack, the IAAF president, admitted to a “leak of confidentiality” and insisted his organisation had been “obliged to investigate” because Caster had improved by 25 seconds at 1500m and eight seconds at 800 m "the sort of dramatic breakthroughs that usually arouse suspicion of drug use."

As international anger at Caster’s exposure grew, the IAAF denied racism and claimed the test was not about suspected cheating but to discover is she was suffering from “a rare medical condition". Though the IAAF later apologised and let Caster keep her medal and prize money, Wilfred Daniels, Semenya's coach, resigned saying Athletics South Africa (ASA) "did not advise Ms Semenya properly". Then, in September 2009, ASA President Leonard Chuene admitted he too had subjected Semenya to gender checks, but hadn’t explained the true purpose of the tests to the runner.

With no scientific investigation, no real justification, Caster was withdrawn from international competition until 6 July 2010 – and only then did the IAAF clear her to return to competition with no cogent explanation for the ordeal she had been forced to go through.

Her parents and grandparents in Fairlie near Polokwane were subjected to endless questioning about her teen years as “a tomboy”, her headmaster at Nthema Secondary School was pounced on when he admitted she had worn trousers rather than a skirt in grade 11. All this was seen as evidence of something that rigorous science had emphatically disproved.

Semenya returned to take silver at the 2011 World Championships and has been working at the Pretoria University High Performance Centre – which produced world-record breaking breast-stroke golden boy Cameron van der Burgh and the Oarsome Foursome – to put herself back on top of the world of two-lap running.

Tonight we will see the results of that effort. And find out just how strong Caster Semenya is. Let nobody raise the issue of gender if Semenya is crowned the world’s 800m queen again tonight.

A buzzing capital city, a sold-out stadium, a rousing triumph: Usain Bolt is not alone

Fastest man on the planet: Usain Bolt on Sunday night

What a showdown: a sold-out stadium in the capital with support split evenly between the two big guns of their sporting sphere. The long-awaited clash of the titans. And almost from the start, just one dominating force; unstoppable, devastating. In the end it was a no-contest, a crushing victory which will live in the sporting memory for years to come.

But perhaps we should leave Kaizer Chiefs to lick their wounds rather then re-live the events of Loftus Versfeld on Sunday, where big-spending Mamelodi Sundowns cruised to an emphatic 4-1 win over the mighty Amakhosi.

With Thamsanqa Sangweni, Tebogo Langerman, Lebohang Mokoena and the impressive Edward Manqele all scoring before the 37^th minute, many were considering calling in the army to protect the senseless slaughter of the hapless Zebras.

Yes, the season-opening MTN8 quarter-final – which also produced wins for Orlando Pirates, Moroka Swallows and SuperSport United – was quite something.

As I predicted last week, Sundowns’ Dutch coach Johan Neeskens left new Chiefs boss Stuart Baxter clutching at straws like this: “If we could have kept it in reach when we came in at half-time, we could have turned a few things around and maybe would have had a chance in the second-half.

"This result tells you that we have a lot of work to do. We'll lick our wounds, we'll sharpen our knives again and we'll get back to the job. It's certainly not going to be a pleasant evening."

In fact, for most sports lovers, it was a very pleasant evening as we went on to that other clash of the titans in another capital – London, which is in the midst of a ridiculously entertaining 30^th summer Olympics.

In the sparkling new stadium in run-down Stratford, South Africans were riveted by the men’s 100m final which saw the showman Usain Bolt justify his arrogant pre-race antics with a sensational victory over fellow Jamaican Yohan Blake. To have confidence like that, the bloke has to be running world records at every training session, despite his recent injury problems.

Whilst proving lightning Bolts CAN strike twice, Bolt’s first-ever successful defence of the defining event of the modern Olympiad saw a record SEVEN men break the 10 second barrier.

Bolt’s time of 9.63secs was a new Olympic record but just a stride short of his world record 9.58. That wasn’t the point: "I’m one step closer to become a legend,” he said, “This means a lot, because some people were doubting. A lot of people were saying I wasn't going to win, I didn't look good. There was a lot of talk.

"It's an even greater feeling to come out here and defend my title and show the world I'm still No. 1. So I'm happy with myself."

Bolt isn’t entirely content though. Here’s what he said about the security in London: “I was in the line, we were waiting to run and the guy was telling me to line up straight. I was like, ‘Really? We’re about to run and they are going to make me stand in a straight line?’ There are just some weird rules here.

“Then they saw my skipping rope. They said I can’t bring it in, and I asked, ‘Why?” They just said, ‘It is the rules.’ So if I have a rubber band that I need to stretch, I can’t take it in. And when I asked why, they say, ‘It’s just the rules.’ It’s just some weird small rules that don’t make any sense to me, personally.”

And so ended another weekend of frantic Olympic gold mining. South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius made history by becoming the first amputee to compete in the Olympics, Kenya did the traditional thing in the 3,000m steeple-chase, Great Britain’s Andy Murray crushed Roger Federer to win gold at Wimbledon, the drunken fan who threw a bottle at the 100m starters was soundly thumped by Dutch judoka bronze medallist Edith Bosch, who tweeted: “Een dronken gast voor mij gooit een flesje op de baan!! IK HEB HEM GESLAGEN. Ongelofelijk!!”

Most South Africans will understand that to mean: “One drunken guest in front of me threw a bottle on the track. I WHACKED HIM! Unbelievable.”

And after translation, a little lesson in spelling. Note the difference between the following two sentences: South Africa has won gold. Australia has one gold.

In fact, South Africa has a record-equalling three golds and one silver so far. And we still have Richard Murray (triathlon, today), Sunette Viljoen (javelin, Thursday), Bridgitte Hartley (women’s K1 500, Thursday), Siphiso “Skizo” Nhlapo (BMX, Friday), Caster Semenya (800m, Saturday) and Bury Stander (mountain biking, Sunday) to come.

Yes, Team South Africa have pleny to look forward to. And I offer the estimated 15 million devastated Amakhosi this: “Khosi 4-1 life!”