Semenya continues to make history

CASTER SEMENYA can now officially call herself a two-time Olympic champion and triple 800-metre world champion after Russian Mariya Savinova’s ban was upheld.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) last year ruled Savinova be stripped of her gold medals from the London 2012 Olympic Games and 2011 World Championships after she was found guilty of using performance-enhancing drugs.

Savinova appealed the decision that disqualified all her competitive results from 26 July 2010 to 26 August 2013 and included a four-year ban. The CAS dismissed Savinova’s appeal at the end of July which effectively upgraded Semenya from silver to gold.

“The athlete has distorted multiple high-level competitions, damaged numerous other athletes and has breached the applicable rules on many occasions using multiple different substances and did so in full knowledge of the circumstances,” the CAS said in its ruling.

Semenya finished behind Savinova at both the 2011 World Championships in Daegu and the London 2012 Olympic Games.

She is effectively the first woman to win back-to-back Olympic 800m gold medals and the first female to boast double titles in the two-lap race at the Games.

Semenya won her third 800m gold medal at last year’s world championships in London, eight years after she won her maiden title in Berlin 2009.

Savinova was identified in secret documentary recordings where she admitted to taking banned substances.

Last year the CAS ruled there was “clear evidence” from her biological passport that she had been doping from July 2010 to 2013.

“As a consequence, a four-year period of ineligibility, beginning on 24 August 2015, has been imposed and all results achieved by her between 26 July 2010 and 19 August 2013, are disqualified and any prizes, medals, prize and appearance money forfeited,” the CAS said in its initial ruling.

Meanwhile, the European Athletics Championships, which were set to kick off in Berlin yesterday, will be the “strongest ever seen” and will help bring the “good times” back to an ailing sport, according to European Athletics president Svein-Arne Hansen.

The 24th edition comes with the sport trying to emerge from a grim period disfigured by doping problems.

The event features seven reigning Olympic champions, 15 world champions and 34 victors from the last championships in Amsterdam two years ago.

“I think it’s the strongest championships we have ever seen,” Hansen said.

There will again be no Russian team with their federation still suspended.