Other Sport
Semenya ignores gender row
2009-08-25 16:23
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Pretoria - South Africa's world champion athlete Caster Semenya on Tuesday declined to speak about the order for her to undergo gender tests, instead praising her coach as she addressed reporters alongside President Jacob Zuma.
"I called my coach and my coach told me 'you can do it, man'," she said. "You lead from start to finish. You can do it, girl," she added, recalling her coach's comments.
"I took a lead in the last 400 and I killed them. They couldn't follow the race. It was good man. I saw gold at the last 200," she said, smiling as she spoke.
The comments were the first time that the 18-year-old has spoken about her gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin last week, where she powered to a 1minute 55.45seconds win in the 800 metres - the world's best this year.
Shortly before the race, world athletics governing body, the IAAF, announced that Semenya would undergo tests to verify her gender, sparking an outcry in South Africa and feeding a debate about what makes a woman a woman.