Run Like God
Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 1:41 pm
Faced with plenty of questions and no satisfactory answers, the IAAF chose to delay a decision on the eligibilty of controversial 800m runner Caster Semenya last night, allowing the South African to win the women's 800m in a performance so dominant it verged on mockery.
Semenya was cleared to run but not cleared of the allegations and questions that have dogged her all week, as South African officials were ordered to organise more complex gender testing to determine whether her world title will stand or fall.
In a way it was the worst possible outcome, but one that was hard to avoid. With plenty of questions and few answers hanging over her head, the South African powered home to annihilate a world class field, winning by more than 20 metres.
Afterwards, the reception form the passionate athletics crowd in Berlin's Olympic Stadium was muted to say the least. While second-placed Kenyan Janeth Jepkosgei and third placed Jennifer Meadows of Great Britain stayed out on the track and soaked up applause during a victory lap, the South African quickly disappeared into the bowels of the stadium.
IAAF secretary general Pierre Weiss took Semenya's place at the press conference.
"I am replacing the winner here tonight. A double investigation is being conducted - one in South Africa, one in Berlin," he said.
Weiss said that it would be improper to put such an inexperienced athlete up for interview given the circumstances.
"We know you want to talk to her, but she is young, she is inexperienced and she is not able to reply properly to all your questions,'' he said.
"I will answer for her. The decision not to put her up her was taken by the IAAF and the South African federation.''
"If at the end of the investigation we find out she is not a woman, we will withdraw the medal and redistribute it. But there is nothing which would have stopped her from running today."
Earlier in the day the IAAF had ordered the South African federation to perform more stringent investigations to determine whether Semenya is female, male or somewhere in-between after the tests carried out by the IAAF in recent days provided conflicting results and were unable to settle the matter.
It is understood that some informal pressure was placed upon the South African team to consider withdrawing the athlete, who has come under increasing scrutiny in recent days as the doubts over her eligibility grew louder. But the South Africans pressed ahead with fielding the teenager, who started a hot favourite for Gold and finished two and a half seconds clear - a massive margin.
IAAF spokesman Nick Davies said the "extremely complex, difficult" test had been ordered but warned that results would take weeks to be finalised.
The verification test requires a physical medical evaluation, and includes reports from a gynecologist, endocrinologist, psychologist, an internal medicine specialist and an expert on gender.
"We're talking about reports that are very long, very time consuming," Davies said.
As a South African, he is cleary a she and deserves the gold.
