Cape Town - Steve Cornelius, a law professor from the University of Pretoria, has resigned from his position on the disciplinary tribunal of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
It follows the IAAF's latest regulations regarding female athletes’ testosterone levels.
Under rules announced last Thursday, the IAAF introduced a separate female classification for an athlete with differences of sexual development.
Such athletes, including South Africa’s Caster Semenya, will have to reduce and then maintain their testosterone levels to no greater than 5nmol/L by November 1, 2018 if they want to compete in events ranging from 400m to a mile.
READ: New testosterone rules would see Semenya finish last
In his resignation letter, Cornelius says he cannot continue to associate himself with an organisation that “insists on ostracising certain individuals, all of them female, for no other reason being than what they were born to be”.
He added that the adoption of new regulations for female classification is based on the same ideology that’s led to some of the “worst injustices and atrocities in the history of our planet”.
My colleague Steve Cornelius shows why integrity and fairness cannot serve anachronistic and prejudicial ideas in self-regulation. #IAAF #Semenya #sportslaw pic.twitter.com/1ngchAyY1e
— Gregory Ioannidis (@LawTop20) April 29, 2018