CASTER SEMENYA COMES UNDER FIRE

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Caster Semenya. (Pic: Erik van Leeuwen)

Following her remarkable win in Berlin on Sunday some competitors have lashed out at athlete Caster Semenya, focusing on her gender.

Semenya won the 800m race, her third in a row since being cleared to start running in July after almost a year in limbo while she awaited results of gender testing.

Diane Cummins of Canada, who came in eighth, spoke out against Semenya after the event.

“Even if she is a female, she’s on the very fringe of the normal athlete female biological composition from what I understand of hormone testing,” said Cummins.

“From that perspective, most of us just feel that we are literally running against a man,” she added.

Semenya’s coach, Michael Seme, responded that “People are people and they will say things, but good luck to them. We have no problem. If these athletes don’t want to come and run, it’s up to them.”

He insisted that the 19 year old runner was not fazed by the remarks: “We don’t even care about the past now. We’re just looking forward to new things and shouldn’t be talking about the old ones. That is now over and gone.”

Semenya was suspended from running in August last year after concerns were raised about her gender. In July the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) gave her the all-clear to compete as a woman.

The results of her medical tests have not been made public.

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