POSTED: September 19th 2009
NewsUpdate
I lied over Semenya gender test, admits South African athletics boss
KEIR RADNEDGE / Sports Features Communications
LONDON/JOHANNESBURG: The credibility of all South African sport has been thrown into the air after the admission of the country’s athletics boss that he lied over the Caster Semenya issue.
Cricket still harbours long unhappy memories of the South African match-fixing scandal while preparations for next year’s dfotball World Cup have been marred by the bitter football election confrontation between Irvin Khoza and Danny Jordaan.
The U-turn over Semenya by Leonard Chuene means massive embarrassment for the South African political establishment which, utterly misled by its own officials, accused world sport of racism. The leadership of Athletics South Africa may even be disbanded by the ANC government in pursuit of the truth over the trans-gender cloud surrounding the gold-medal-winning World Championship athlete.
ASA president Chuene, finally, has conceded that Semenya was subjected to gender tests before her Berlin victory; he said he had lied about the tests to protect her privacy. Chuene said he denied the tests took place because the IAAF governing body had made no request for her to be withdrawn from last month’s World Championships.
The IAAF, which subsequently ordered formal tests, said last month that an investigation into the 18-year-old’s gender was under way after her sudden improvement in form this year.
Consistent denial
Chuene added: “Had the ASA admitted its knowledge at the time, it would have compromised Caster Semenya's privacy. I believed at the time that my consistent denial would help protect her. At no stage did IAAF come to us procedurally in the manner that it must come to us and say it needed us to withdraw the child because of that."
Semenya won the 800m in 1:55.54, the year's fastest time and a personal best by more than a second. The IAAF has declined to confirm reports which said Semenya had both male and female sexual characteristics. No decision on the tests is expected until late November.
Chuene said he had ignored a request from ASA team doctor Harold Adams to withdraw Semenya from the championships over gender concerns because the tests had needed to be kept confidential.
He said: "There was nothing, either in our own constitution, in terms of our own procedures and regulations, there was nothing that says you will prevent a child from running, so I had no instruments to do that. If we did not allow this girl to run we would be confirming to ourselves that the girl is not normal."
Chuene’s admission became inevitable after Semenya’s coach Wilfred Daniels, earlier this month, said that ASA – despite all the deniels - had complied with an IAAF request and tricked Semenya into taking an initial gender test. Daniels said she had been led to believe it was a standard drug test.
Keywords · Semenya · Chuene · Athletics South Africa · ANC · Daniels · IAAF · World Championships · athletics · Berlin · 800m
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