Doha next stop for Caster amid storm
Star focuses on Qatar race as IAAF storm rages on
The international media spotlight is set to turn on Caster Semenya when she returns to a major global competition on Friday.
The recently crowned Commonwealth Games double champion has been confirmed among the entries for the opening meet of the IAAF Diamond League series in Doha.
The 27-year-old mid-distance ace will line up in the 1 500m final at the one-day event in Qatar.
She returns to Doha looking for another win, albeit over the 1 500m this year, having won the 800m in the Arabian gulf state last May.
Semenya turned out in a shorter distance at the SA Student Championships, where she won the 400m final in Sasolburg at the weekend.
Semenya has again become the subject of International Association of Athletics Federations scrutiny after the world athletics governing body passed a rule that would in future force women athletes undergo testosterone-reducing treatment or face bans.
This will affect distances ranging from the 400m, 800m and 1 500m and the mile, and is seen as targeting Semenya.
This has triggered widespread criticism from
‘‘ God made me the way I am and I accept myself. I am who I am...
some quarters, including the South African government, which labelled the IAAF’s amended hyperandrogenism rule last week as a “targeted approach”.
Efforts to reach Semenya were in vain as her phone went unanswered.
She has only dropped hints of her response to the IAAF via her Twitter account, with the latest being: “God made me the way I am and I accept myself. I am who I am and I am proud of myself.”
Meanwhile, an SA law professor, Steve Cornelius, has resigned from the IAAF disciplinary tribunal saying he could not continue associating himself "with an organisation which insists on ostracising certain individuals, all of them female, for no other reason than being what they were born to be”.