Pages

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Caster Semenya row will be settled by end of June, says IAAF president


Caster Semenya has not raced since winning gold at last summer's world athletics championships in Berlin. Photograph: Dominic Ebenbichler/Reuters

• Semenya had planned to run in Zaragoza on 24 June

Lamine Diack, the president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, has confirmed there will be a resolution to the gender row surrounding Caster Semenya by the end of June.

The 19-year-old South African, who has undergone tests to determine her gender, has not raced since winning gold in the women's 800 metres at last summer's world championships in Berlin. The results of those tests were initially expected last November but the case is still yet to be concluded.

Earlier this year Semenya announced plans to return to action this season, stating she plans to run in Zaragoza in Spain on 24 June. Whether she will go ahead with that plan remains to be seen, but Diack feels a resolution to the saga is weeks away.

"This issue must be a confidential one. We had this kind of problem [before] but it never got out," Diack said ahead of tonight's inaugural IAAF Diamond League meeting in Doha, Qatar. "It's the first time that it got open. My job was in the end to make it confidential and I think we are on the way to finding the solution.

"In the coming weeks we will tell you 'this is the solution'. It will not take longer than until the end of June. I cannot elaborate on that. This girl was in a very difficult position. It was very difficult for everyone."

The IAAF have been investigating Semenya's gender after her breakthrough performance in winning the African junior championship title at the end of July last year.
The teenager ran a stunning time of one minute 56.72 seconds in Mauritius, taking almost four seconds from her previous best, and sliced another 1.27sec off that time with victory in the German capital in August.

No comments:

Post a Comment