In an interview with SABC Sport, Caster Semenya revealed how she coached Xaba to achieve the unthinkable, leading to a stunning victory and nearly a million in prize money for shattering both the course and national record.

Xaba’s exceptional form this year on the road can be credited to Semenya’s guidance.

"It does not challenge you because you know we say coaching is a skill. If you are not scared to take risks you become successful as a coach. So, what we do, is remember, Violet is a mastermind in terms of long distance. I'm the mastermind in terms of speed endurance,” Semenya said.

“So, what we do, is we sit down, we talk, we look at the athlete because when you coach an athlete, first, you look at their weaknesses and their strengths. We know her strength is in distance but now we have to enforce also the speed into training to make sure that everything is balanced."

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Semenya praised Xaba as one of the most dedicated athletes to coach, highlighting her discipline and strong work ethic as the key factors behind her success in the marathon, despite never having raced in one before.

"You know middle-distance and long is the combination of everything. So, it becomes easy to coach someone who is willing to wake up each and every morning, without picking up your phone to say 'Hey, you have to do your long run, you have to come and do a track session.' Yes, she does not like some of the things but we make sure that we tick all the boxes."

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