Sascoc to take on IAAF’s ‘Caster’ ruling
THE challenge to the IAAF’s female eligibility rules is expected to kick up a gear after a SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) advisory committee met in Cape Town yesterday to discuss a battle plan.
The committee, headed by Sascoc’s medical commission chair, Dr Phatho Zondi, includes a sports physician, legal counsel, an endocrinolo- gist and a sports scientist, and will plot the way forward.
Sascoc president Gideon Sam said they needed to get all their facts straight if they were to take on the Inter- national Association of Ath- letics Federations.
“We’ve heard IAAF presi- dent Seb Coe say it is the right thing to do (introducing the regulations), and that is what they are saying,” Sam said.
“You have to be careful about just tackling them. You must get your ducks in a row, and that is what we are doing in Cape Town now.
“They are sitting around a table and will then come forward and say ‘ASA (Athletics South Africa) and Sascoc, can you do ABC’.
“Once you have that in place, you go forward and go to the IAAF.”
The amended regulations will attempt to regulate women who naturally produce testosterone levels above 5 nanomoles per litre and are limited to athletes who compete in events ranging from the 400m to the mile.
South African middledistance runner Caster Semenya could be affected by the new controversial female classification rules introduced on April 26, and which will come into effect on November 1.
ASA threatened last week to take the IAAF to the Court of Arbitration for Sport if it did not withdraw the amended regulations.