Other Sport
Semenya results out soon
2009-09-08 21:21
Email | Print
London - The results of Caster Semenya's gender verification tests are due to arrive at the IAAF any day, but the outcome is unlikely to see the world 800-meter champion stripped of her gold medal.
Doubts about the South African's sex surfaced at the world athletics championships last month in Berlin when it emerged the tests were being conducted.
The 18-year-old Semenya's muscular build, husky voice and stunning race times sparked questions over whether she has a medical condition that blurs her sex and gives her an unfair advantage over women.
The definitive outcome will be determined by athletics' international governing body within two weeks after a team of experts analyzes the data.
"We will get the results any day now of the Berlin investigation, then they need to be checked - it's not something where you have a yes or a no," IAAF spokesperson Nick Davies told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
"The set of data will be checked by a group consisting of at least the IAAF medical and anti-doping commission and probably with experts from the outside.
"Only then, with conclusive evidence, would we be in a position to make an educated decision based on that evidence. My information is that it will take between 8 days and two weeks to be in a position to speak to Semenya and decide where to go."
The process required a physical medical evaluation and includes reports from a gynecologist, endocrinologist, psychologist, internal medicine specialist and gender expert.
Davies indicated that Semenya is likely to keep the gold medal she won by 2.45 seconds in a year-best 1 minute, 55.45 seconds in Berlin.
"There is no automatic disqualification of results in a case like this," Davies said. "This is not a doping case at present so it shouldn't be considered as one where you have a retroactive stripping of results."