Caster team’s first salvo
OBJECTION: ATHLETICS BODY ‘DISMAYED’ AT IAAF’S DISCLOSURE OF EXPERTS
Court panel rules all parties be allowed to issue similar statements.
Athletics South Africa (ASA) lashed out at its mother body yesterday, accusing the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) of employing underhanded tactics on the opening day of a hearing into controversial gender rules at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya went to the court in Lausanne yesterday to challenge proposed rules that could force her to lower her testosterone levels.
“ASA notes with great dismay and disappointment that, despite the parties having been bound to confidentiality undertakings and ASA consistently adhering to them, the IAAF has during the course of proceedings this morning released the names and backgrounds of their expert witnesses and provided a brief expose of their views of the topics to be covered by them in the current proceedings at the CAS,” the national federation said in a statement.
“This is in clear violation of the confidentiality undertaking made to CAS and in ASA’s view [this] amounts to underhand tactics to try and win support for their views in the court of public opinion.”
Earlier yesterday, the IAAF released a list of experts who would provide evidence in support of their case this week. They included Angelica Linden Hirschberg, a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology; David Handelsman, a professor of reproductive endocrinology and andrology; Joanna Harper, a medical physicist; Doriane Lambelet Coleman, a professor of law; and Richard Auchus, a former professor of pharmacology and internal medicine.
Legal teams representing ASA and Semenya had raised objections to the IAAF releasing details of its experts and the CAS panel ruled that all parties be allowed to issue similar statements.
“ASA will, in due course, make a more comprehensive disclosure of its experts’ views,” ASA said.
Semenya and ASA are challenging the IAAF’s new rules which restrict hyperandrogenic athletes from competing against women at international level in certain events.
Semenya is not the only athlete potentially affected – the silver and bronze medallists in the Rio Olympics 800m, Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi and Margaret Wambui of Kenya, have also faced questions about their testosterone levels. But it is Semenya, who also won Olympic gold in 2012 and has three world titles to her name, who has led opposition to the proposed rules.
CAS had set aside five days for evidence and its decision is expected by the end of March. –
Semenya is not the only athlete potentially affected