Athletics SA ready for IAAF face-off
• National body seeks to uphold Caster Semenya’s champion status in middle-distance events
SA would challenge new rules on hyperandrogenism in athletics as it sought to keep up double Olympian Caster Semenya’s status as the queen of middle-distance athletics.
SA will challenge new rules on hyperandrogenism in athletics as it seeks to keep up double Olympian Caster Semenya’s status as the queen of middle distance athletics, Athletics SA said on Thursday.
The body said after a week’s consultation with the country’s sports ministry and Olympic committee, it had found the new regulations skewed.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) last week confirmed new rules, which effectively give Semenya a choice of taking medication to restrict testosterone or moving to longer-distance events.
“As a member federation, we will engage the IAAF as our mother body and if they do not change their minds on this new rule after this engagement, we will proceed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport for further assistance on the matter,” Athletics SA said.
But it gave no details on what grounds it would seek to set aside the new rules, which come into effect on November 1 and are likely to affect Semenya.
“Athletics SA once again takes the opportunity to reaffirm our support for all our athletes who may be affected by this new ruling,” ASA added.
The rules seek to prevent women with hyperandrogenism — which produces higher than normal levels of testosterone and is deemed by the governing body to give them an unfair advantage — from running distances from 400m to a mile. They would only be allowed to compete at international level if they took medication to reduce naturally occurring levels of testosterone.
Semenya, a double Olympic and triple world champion over 800m and who completed the 800m-1,500m double at the Commonwealth Games in April, has always been a controversial figure in the sport as its authorities have sought a solution that respected her rights while also providing a “level playing field”.
The 27-year-old, categorised by the IAAF as an athlete with a Difference of Sexual Development, left some rivals complaining they faced an impossible and unfair challenge.
The IAAF had similar regulations in place for four years but fell foul of a ruling in 2015 after an appeal on behalf of Indian athlete Dutee Chand, who had been banned from competing because of testosterone levels.
The IAAF Council said earlier in 2018 that it had completed a review of the available evidence after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling had instructed it to do so.
The South African raised eyebrows when she won the world junior championships in 2008 and the senior world title in 2009, with a drastic improvement in her times.
The IAAF made Semenya take a sexual verification test, initially kept secret but revealed by the media in 2009.
Since then virtually all Semenya’s performances have been followed by questions about her sexual and physical status, but she has long stopped answering them.
● Semenya will kick off her Diamond League campaign in the 1,500m in Doha on Friday‚ lining up as favourite in a field missing the world’s best.
Semenya was third in the 1,500m at the 2017 World Championships in London.
But the field in Qatar will feature neither Olympic and world champion Faith Kipyegon of Kenya nor Jennifer Simpson‚ the American who took the Olympic bronze and World Championship silver.
Semenya is one of several South Africans in action on Friday. Carina Horn‚ who recently broke the national 100m mark‚ goes up against Dafne Schippers as well as Ivorians Murielle Ahoure and Marie-Josee Ta Lou in the straight sprint.
Cornel Fredericks is in the 400m hurdles‚ veteran Khotso Mokoena in the triple jump and Pieter Conradie in the 400m.
The meeting will be broadcast on Supersport7 from 6pm.