POSTED: February 9th 2010
NewsUpdate
Another awards hat-trick for Semenya while test results wait goes on
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT / Sports Features Communications
JOHANNESBURG: Caster Semenya is still picking up awards back home in South Africa whatever the shadows of uncertainty surrounding her abroad.
Semenya strode away with three major prizes at the Athletics Gauteng North ceremony in Pretoria. The world’s 800m champion collected the World Junior Athlete of the year, Female Elite Athlete of the Year and Track and Field awards.
The 19-year-old student capped her 2009 performance by becoming the first black South African woman to win a gold medal at an IAAF world competition. This was in winning the 800m final in Berlin in August when questions around her gender were first raised.
Semenya declined to comment on the issue, saying: “I have been instructed by my lawyers not to speak to the media on any matter.”
The Limpopo-born runner now has her eyes set on the African senior championships in Kenya, the World Junior Championships in Canada and the Commonwealth Games in India. Competing depends on the outcome of gender verification test investigations by the IAAF.
Semenya is currently suspended pending a resolution of her case. Test results have been delayed after having been expected originally last November.
Leading the other AGN awards races was Khotso Mokoena, the only South African athlete to have won a medal – long jump silver - at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He collected both Male Elite Athlete of the Year and Track and Field awards. Mokoena’s next target is the defence of his world indoor title in Qatar next month.
Stephen Mokoka (male) and Annerien van Schalkwyk (female) won the Athlete of the Year awards in cross country.
Keywords · South Africa · Semenya · IAAF · gender
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