IAAF, ASA agree CAS must rule on female classification

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) will not soften its stance on new regulations for female classification and is ready to defend it in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), President Sebastian Coe has said.

Coe’s comments follow Tuesday’s meeting in London with Athletics South Africa (ASA) President Aleck Skhosana, in which the concerns of ASA over the new ruling were discussed.

ASA and South African double Olympic and triple world 800-meter champion Caster Semenya have both separately appealed to CAS to have the new regulations that limit the levels of naturally occurring testosterone in female athletes set aside.

Coe and Skhosana met to clarify their positions and with neither side willing to budge, they have declared that CAS is the best body to rule on the dispute.

“We will support our athletes on the grounds that the regulations discriminate against certain female athletes on the basis of natural physical characteristics and/or sex,” Skhosana said in a media release from the IAAF on Wednesday.

He added that ASA and Semenya have the support of the South African government and the country’s Olympic Committee.

But Coe said there will be no easing of the regulations, which are set to be introduced on November 1, as the IAAF believes they are the fairest solution to a tricky challenge facing the sport.

The IAAF said its decision was based on peerreviewed studies and observation by scientists which showed that females with above-normal or male equivalent levels of testosterone had up to a 12 percent performance advantage over fellow female athletes.

Testosterone is a hormone that increases muscle mass, strength and haemoglobin, which affects endurance.