Lynsey Sharp stayed true to her word by living to fight another day with Caster Semenya.
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Semenya is not without her supporters – a #HandsOffCaster hashtag has erupted on Twitter.
“When you line up against someone like that, you know it’s going to be a completely different ball game”, she added. “It’s definitely changed the racing game this year”.
The run was nearly four seconds off her season’s best time and confirmed her as the favourite for the Olympic title.
“It wasn’t easy, It was pretty hot”.
In 2009 Semenya faced sex verification, a complex invasive procedure, by both Athletics South Africa and the IAAF after winning the 800 meter at the World Championships in Berlin. She was suspended for 11 months. A benchmark was set, disallowing women to compete as women if their testosterone levels were roughly three times higher than testosterone naturally occurring in 99 per cent of female athletes. The court’s ruling, though, is provisional, giving track’s governing body two years in which to study the science and possibly revisit the matter. It was also the fastest time by anyone since 2008. It’s created an uncomfortable situation for many other runners. “It’s not anybody’s fault”. He knows best. It’s up to us to just support her. No woman this century-and only one other in history-has run under 1:54. In July 2010 the IAAF cleared Semenya to compete. However, she has long faced scrutiny over her gender.
“I don’t think the consensus on it has been very positive, so maybe they will look to revise it, but again I just concentrate on my own performance, because that’s all I can do”.
Caster Semenya doesn’t talk. Immediately, her times began to improve.
During London 2012 Semenya won silver in the 800m after taking suppressants to lower her testosterone levels – on the orders of the IAAF.
South Africa’s Caster Semenya, right, United States’ Ajee Wilson, center, Britain’s Shelayna Oskan-Clarke, second left, and China’s Chunyu Wang, left, compete in a women’s 800-meter heat during the athletics competitions of the 2016 Summer Olympics at the Olympic stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016. Semenya’s quest to be Olympic champion is a test of compassion as much as running. It’s an issue of protecting human rights, but I guess the decision is who has to be protected.
It is believed that only Semenya’s coach and team-mates will be given access to her until she leaves Rio next week.
“It’s probably something that needs to be revised after this”, she said.
Semenya came first place during her heat with a time of 1.59.31. She, too, feels the IAAF should try to revisit its rules that concern Semenya’s eligibility. I don’t really have any views.
She is an athlete with an unblemished record and has never been accused of doping and yet there continue to be grumbles as to why she hasn’t been excluded from the Olympics. “Whoever’s on there is racing”.
“If anything she has probably helped a lot of us run quite a bit faster this year than we might have otherwise”, said France’s Justine Fedronic, who also failed to advance.
Even as Coe and his sport waffle over how Semenya should be treated, he acknowledged the value of her inclusion.
After the race in the German capital, Italian runner Elisa Cusma Piccioni said: “She is a man”, while Canadian Diane Cummins described her as “on the very fringe of the normal athlete female biological composition from what I understand of hormone testing”.
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Increased levels of testosterone is one of more than 40 characteristics that stand outside the common binary definitions of male and female, which could indicate someone is intersex.
